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THE CATHEDRAL OF TOURS 



CHURCHES AND CASTLES OF 
MEDI/EVAL FRANCE 



WALTER CRANSTON LARNED 



ILL USTRA TED 




'^■"^"^/-^Ub', 



NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1895 



COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 




\J 






kH 



To my daughter Elsie 

in loving memory of her dear companionship 
in these journeyings 



^*^ This book is a record of a traveller's impres- 
sions of the great monuments of France. I hope 
that it may bring others to see these wonderful 
churches and castles. It is easy for the student 
to get accurate information about them ; but nev- 
ertheless it may be of some use to tell what effect 
they produce upon one who does not wish to study 
deeply into all their history and the minute details 
of the building of them, but who does love their 
beauty and cares about the place they hold in the 
history of the French people. 

W. C. L. 



4't 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTEK PAGE 

I. Historical Monuments of France ... 1 

II. The Cathedral of Amiens ..... 5 

III. Beauvais and Chartres ..... 18 

IV. Tours 25 

V. Caen 30 

VI. Rouen 37 

VII. Mont St. Michel ....... 47 

VIII. Carcassonne ........ 61 

IX. Aigues-Mortes 75 

X. Custodians of French Churches and Monu- 
ments 85 

XI. The Templar Church of St. Jean de Luz . 90 

XII. Poitiers 97 

XIII. Two Ancient Bearnais Churches . . . 102 

XIV. The Chateau of Henry of Navarre . . .114 
XV. The Chateau of Langeais 123 

XVI. Chenonceaux and Azat-le-Rideau . . . 130 

XVII. Chinon . . .146 

XVIII. The Chateau of Blois 160 

XIX. The Chateaux of Loches and Chaumont . . 172 
vii 



Vm CONTENTS 

CHAPTEK PAGE 

XX. The Chateaux of Amboise and Chambord . 181 

XXL Roman and Christian Monuments at NImes and 

Arlbs 190 

XXII. Boueges 201 

XXIII. The Cathedral op Rheims 213 

XXIV. St. Denis 223 

XXV. St. Etienne du Mont, the Church of the 

Patron Saint of Paris — Notre Dame, and 
THE Pantheon 231 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Cathedral of Touks Frontispiece 

PACING PAGE 

The Cathedral of Amiens ....... 6 - 

The Cathedral of Beauvais . . . . . . 18 ^ 

The Cathedral of Chartres . . ... 22 ■/'^ 

The Castle of Ealaisb 30 

The Palais de Justice at Eouen . . . . .38/" 

Mont St. Michel 48 ^ 

Carcassonne. Porte de L'Aude and Bishop's Tower . 62 

AlGUES-MORTES 76 

The Church of the Templars at Luz . . , .90 

NoTRE Dame de Poitiers 98 -^ 

The Church of the Holt Faith at Morlaas . . . 108 V 

The Chateau of Henry of Navarre .... 114 i^ 

The Chateau of Langeais 124 >'' / 

The Chateau of Chenonceaux ...... 130 y 

The Castle of Chinon . 146//' 

Staircase of the Chateau of Blois .... 160' 

The Chateau of Chaumont 174 v 

Door of the Chapel of Amboise 182' 

The Pont du Gaed 194 

The Cathedral of Bourges 202 • 

The Cathedral of Rheims . . . . . . . 214 ^ 

St. Denis 224 

The Church of St. Etienne du Mont .... 232 . 

ix 



CHURCHES AND CASTLES OF 
MEDIEVAL FRANCE 



CHURCHES AND CASTLES OF 
MEDI/EVAL FRANCE 

CHAPTER I 

HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF FRANCE 

No one who has travelled in France, and visited 
the cathedrals, the chstteaux, and the walled towns, 
can fail to be deeply impressed by the meaning of 
the two words, " historical monument." These words 
are found in every guide-book. Sometimes only the 
initials (M. H.) are given, as in Murray. A " monu- 
ment historique " in France means a church, or a 
castle, or a town that has been thought worthy either 
of restoration or preservation at the expense of the 
French people. There is a tax levied to provide the 
money necessary for these purposes, and it is aston- 
ishing how much the French are willing to pay to 
preserve or restore whatever has to do with their 
history as a nation. The money required is by no 
means a small sum. The restoration of Carcassonne 
was undertaken by Mr. VioUet-le-Duc, by the direc- 

B 1 



Z HISTORICAL MONUMEKTS OF FRANCE 

tion of the authorities who have these matters in 
charge in France. This restoration meant spending 
about four hundred thousand dollars on the cathe- 
dral and about three hundred thousand dollars on 
the walls and towers. The work is not yet com- 
pleted. The ch§,teau, which was an important part 
of the old town, is not yet completely restored, and 
it will cost a large sum of money before that is fin- 
ished, in the same way as the cathedral and the 
walls and towers have been now made nearly as 
they were when they were built. 

The same thing has been done at Ntmes, though 
not at so great a cost. But this is only one among 
many illustrations as to the spirit of the French peo- 
ple in this matter. The Chateau of Pierrefonds was 
also restored by Mr. Viollet-le-Duc in the time of 
Louis Napoleon. It attests again his skill in bringing 
mediaeval buildings, apparently dead, back again to the 
life that was theirs at the time when they were built. 

The outlay of money does not cease even when 
the restorations are completed. There must be a 
" custodian " for every historical monument, and he 
must have a house to live in and a salary to support 
him. Of course the fees given by visitors are no 
small part of his remuneration, but, nevertheless, he 
is a government official, and the government is re- 
sponsible for his maintenance. 



HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF FRANCE 3 

There are many places in France where other 
questions as to money are involved in the preser- 
vation of the ancient monuments. Bayonne is an 
example in point. This was a very strongly fortified 
town in the Middle Ages. The walls of the town are 
mostly preserved. The moat is there, too, although 
not now full of water. The fortified gates, the ram- 
parts, still are there, and the bastions and barbicans 
outside the walls. All these take up an immense 
amount of space, and every foot of land they cover 
would be valuable for business purposes, because 
Bayonne is a flourishing city, — a seaport, growing 
every day in commercial importance. Nevertheless, 
the old walls and moat, the barbicans and bastions, 
are not disturbed. They are kept as monuments to 
the glory of France, and also for illustration of his- 
tory. They must inspire the French with patriotic 
devotion to their own land. 

There is a lesson to be learned here as to the 
enlightenment of the French people at the present 
day, and there is another lesson to be learned, by way 
of contrast, in going back to the French Revolution, 
and seeing that no social convulsion the world has 
ever seen destroyed so many relics of the past as did 
that one. Not even the iconoclasts of Cromwell were 
so unsparing in wanton destruction. It seems as if 
the French of to-day were trying to make amends 



4 HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF FEANCE 

for the fearful excesses of those who were goaded to 
madness by the tyranny of king after king, culmina- 
ting in the frightful contrast between the luxury of 
Louis XIV.'s court and the misery of his people. 

The fury past, calmness regained, free government 
assured, the people value as precious things all that 
remains in visible form to tell of their ancient history. 

It is not only those connected with the govern- 
ment who feel in this way. The common people are 
in full sympathy with this feeling. The custodian 
of Carcassonne said, with pride, that he paid his share 
of the tax for the restoration of the ancient place like 
any other citizen, although he is a government offi- 
cial ; and the same thing would be said by all those 
who take care of the French historical monuments. 

This custodian of Carcassonne is a remarkable man. 
He has the courtesy of a gentleman, the knowledge 
of a scholar about his own subject, and much intelli- 
gence about other matters beside. 

The custodian of Aigues-Mortes is equally courte- 
ous and equally intelligent. The guide-books can- 
not tell what these men know. They have made 
the one thing that is entrusted to their care the sole 
study of their lives. They love it and they know it. 

It would be well if the American people would 
take care of such historical monuments as they have 
in the same way as is the custom now in France. 



CHAPTER II 

THE CATHEDEAL OF AMIENS 

To one who loves Gothic architecture there are 
few cathedrals more interesting than the cathedral of 
Amiens. It was built in 1220 to 1288, — the sixty- 
eight years of work of the two bishops Everard, who 
founded it, and Godfrey, who carried it to comple- 
tion and consecrated it. 

The name of the architect is preserved, which is 
not always the case with Gothic builders. Robert 
of Luzarches was the designer, and Thomas de Cer- 
mont and his son R^nauet completed the building. 
All honor to them, for they have achieved one of the 
Gothic wonders of the world. 

If the original plan had been carried out, the cathe- 
dral of Amiens would be without a peer among 
Gothic churches. Unfortunately, its exterior is sadly 
marred by a wooden spire which is so far too small 
for the church that it seems quite ridiculous, and 
it is marred also by the failure to complete the 
two western towers, which were meant to culmi- 

6 



6 THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 

nate in spires. The exterior is hurt also by the 
too close crowding around it of small buildings. It 
is not possible from any point of view to get an ade- 
quate idea of the whole church. When these criti- 
cisms are made, as unfortunately they must be, there 
is nothing more to say that does not tell of almost 
unlimited admiration. 

To convey in words the overpowering effect of the 
fagade is not possible. It stands quite alone, in my 
mind, among all Gothic fa9ades I know, easily sur- 
passing all the others. Here is the very essence of 
the Gothic builder's art. Here the exquisite lines 
of his construction blend in the most perfect harmony 
with the superb richness of his ornamentation. Mr. 
Ruskin says that those who built the Gothic churches 
really believed they were building dwelling-places 
for Christ, and they wished to make them as com- 
fortable and beautiful for Him as they could. The 
facade of Amiens certainly bears out this idea, for 
the central figure in it is Christ, called "Le Bon 
Dieu d' Amiens," who welcomes all who come to 
enter its portals and gives them His benediction. 

But at first the figures are not noticed individu- 
ally. Arch upon arch, pinnacle above pinnacle, 
column above column, pier above pier, its vanishing 
lines lost at last in the heavens above, the wondrous 
fa9ade bursts upon the astonished eye in an over- 




THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 



THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 7 

powering grandeur, a wealth of sculpture, an exqui- 
site grace of line and composition, unlike anything 
else in all architecture. And when the dazzled 
sight has become somewhat accustomed to the full 
blaze of this Gothic splendor, when the mind, irre- 
sistibly led at first to aspiration, can rejoice in the 
beauties that help make the wondrous whole, then 
comes the thought, " What spirit was it that inspired 
him who did this, and how can he move men thus 
through all these ages ? " And the mind, answering, 
says it is easy to see that perfect honesty of construc- 
tion and perfect beauty are not far apart. The great 
rose window could not be without the strong support 
of buttresses that permitted so large openings in such 
lofty walls. 

Massive solid piers must give strong foundation 
for spires that are to touch the clouds, and as the 
piers rise higher and higher, and less and less sup- 
porting work is to be done, they become lighter and 
lighter, vanishing one by one into pinnacles, until at 
last the eye is led to the one supreme pinnacle, — the 
nearest point toward the heavens the builder's skill 
could reach. This utmost touch of the spire is not 
here as Robert of Luzarche meant it should be, but 
all the lower lines are eloquent of it. In their 
own beauty of form and thought they point to the 
beauty's oonsunjmation, until the completed spire 



8 THE CATHEDRAL OP AMIENS 

is seen in a dream, almost, as Robert must have 
seen it. 

But graceful lines and forms were not enough, 
however inspiring they might be. The portal of the 
house of God must be beautiful in every part. 
About the door must be the saints and angels who 
surround the Lord. The beauties of God's flowers 
and vines and leaves must lend adornment to these 
columns and enrich these arches. Thus the sculptor 
and the cunning carver help the builder. In the 
great central portal the apostles and saints stand 
reverently, but with most simple dignity, about their 
Master. Each figure has its niche in the recessed 
doorway, and as all stand upon the same level, — and 
the same order is preserved in the side portals, — the 
whole forms one long procession of apostles, martyrs, 
and saints on the Saviour's right hand and on His 
left, reaching from one side of the vast fa9ade to the 
other. Above the Saviour's figure is told in stone 
the thought these pious builders had about the last 
judgment. Many another scene or story from the 
Scriptures is here upon the recessed arches and the 
great bases of the piers, nor is one spot left without 
its ornament or its sacred figure, excepting such as 
should be left unornamented in order that grace and 
strength and beauty of construction might quite 
plainly be seen. 



THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 9 

Far above the saints aii,d apostles who stand about 
the porches is another long procession, reaching 
from one side to the other of the fagade. These 
are the kings of Judah, and very majestic and 
king-like do they seem. At first one might think 
these should not occupy a higher position than the 
others, but only a second thought is needed to show 
that the architect was correct in thus placing them. 
He wished to put that which was most sacred, that 
which had most to teach, where it could most easily 
be seen and best impress its lesson. The kings were 
not so holy as the saints, and, while they give great 
dignity to the structure as they stand there appar- 
ently helping to support it, there is no need that 
each of them should tell his life story, while there 
is the utmost need that Christ and His disciples 
should speak most plainly and directly to the people. 
Therefore the kings are placed so high. The points 
of the portals are crowned with angels, the central 
one Gabriel, who holds the trumpet that is to voice 
the last summons. These seem to bring together all 
the lesson of the sacred story, and tell what its mean- 
ing is, and how it shall end in a heavenly home for 
those who love and worship. 

Beside the beautiful lines and forms, the delicate 
aerial pinnacles and the sumptuous richness of the 
ornamental sculpture as well as its suggestion of all 



10 THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 

that is most sacred, there is another feature in the 
exterior of Amiens hardly less remarkable though 
not very easily to be studied except from above, and 
that is the flying buttresses. These are the dis- 
tinctive feature of Gothic architecture, more truly 
so even than the pointed arch, and to make them 
beautiful was the Gothic architect's greatest triumph 
in one way, because they were not put there for 
beauty but for the necessary strength of construction. 
These of Amiens, however, are beautiful. They are 
pierced with arches and made as light as they can 
be consistently with the strength they must have. 
They seem like myriad long arms, as graceful as 
they are strong, that hold the temple in a firm and 
tender embrace. They would be like the hundred- 
handed giant of old if they were not as beautiful as 
they are strong. 

All this is only the exterior. The chief glory 
of Amiens is within. The wonderful fagade is but 
a gateway, after all, developed into its harmonious 
beauty because of the thought of a welcoming en- 
trance that might invite worshippers to God's house, 
and bid them come thither with a humble and a 
serious heart yet knowing well that peace awaits 
them within. 

One who loves beautiful things, and wishes to 
know enough about them to have them leave a lasting 



THE CATHEDEAL OF AMIENS 11 

impression on the mind, will not ask for the custodian 
when he enters this church. He will avoid that 
person and every one else and seek to be quite alone, 
without any words for a long time, hoping that the 
whole building may tell to him its secret of beauty 
without confusion of impressions or that waste of 
mental energy that must come from an effort to 
comprehend at the same time the vast things and 
the small ones. 

The outside only surrounds the dwelling-place of 
Christ. Within is the real home, as these builders 
thought about it, and he who built this cathedral 
certainly had this idea very close to his heart. The 
sacred place, sacred beyond all others, is the choir 
where the high altar stands. About it are the 
chapels which were the dwelling-places of the saints 
who were accounted worthy to live so near their 
Master. 

It is for this reason that the choir and apse of 
Amiens are so superb. At first one does not seek 
any reason why it should be as it is, but is simply 
overwhelmed by the majesty, the grace, and the 
beauty of it. There is no other Gothic choir like 
this in the impression it gives of vast height. 
Though that of Beauvais is higher, it does not pro- 
duce the same effect because the church is unfin - 
ished. There is no dome to surmount Amiens 



12 THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 

cathedral, no great tower like that of Canterbury, 
no lantern as at Burgos — simply and only the 
Gothic columns and arches spring in unbroken and 
exquisite lines from floor to ceiling. One must 
look upward even as if the heavens were opened 
above him. It seems like that. Whence comes that 
light from above? Is it all glass there, window 
above window from aisle to clerestory, from clere- 
story to the very utmost point of this great upward- 
reaching of the arches ? 

It scarcely seems possible that so much light can 
come through all the wall from foundation to pin- 
nacle of so great a building. But so it is. The 
builder meant the light of heaven to shine upon the 
Saviour's home. He meant, too, that the light 
should come there softly in subdued radiance, that 
it might not be too glaring, and that it should be 
beautiful with red and purple and yellow, suggest- 
ing gratitude and praise for Him who made the 
rainbow, and by its potent charm inviting all to come 
and worship in the sacred place. 

After long looking in mute admiration, after com- 
munion with the spirit of worship that pervades it 
all, one comes at last to understand what the builder 
meant. The buttresses outside were for this, that 
there might be light within, and these towering 
columns in majestic procession from nave to tran- 



THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 13 

sept, from transept to choir and apse, are there to 
hold on high a canopy over the holy place. 

As the meaning becomes more plain, the charm of 
the beauty is more keenly felt, because it is the 
beauty of symmetry, of perfect, orderly development 
from a preconceived idea, and that idea the highest 
known to man, — the thought of absolute, devoted 
worship. 

Mr. Ruskin says of this church in his "Bible of 
Amiens " : " The outside of a French cathedral, 
except for its sculpture, is always to be thought 
of as the wrong side of the stuff in which you find 
how the threads go that produce the inside, or right 
side, patterns ; and if you have no wonder in you for 
that choir, and its encompassing circlet of light, 
when you look up to it from the cross centre, you 
need not travel any farther in search of cathedrals, 
for the waiting-room of any station is a better place 
for you : but if it amaze you and delight you at first, 
then the more you know of it the more it will amaze. 
For it is not possible for imagination and mathe- 
matics together to do anything nobler or stranger 
than that procession of window, with material of 
glass and stone, nor anything which shall look loftier 
with so temperate and prudent measure of actual 
loftiness. . . . From the unhewn block set on end 
in the Druids' bethel to this Lord's house and blue 



14 THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 

vitrailed gate of heaven, you have the entire course 
and consummation of the northern religious builder's 
passion and art." The same author calls Amiens 
" the first virgin perfect work — the Parthenon of 
Gothic architecture." 

There is much more in the interior of this church 
beside its wonderful effect as a whole. There is a 
choir whose wood-carving is equalled by no other in 
Europe except that of Cordova. A marvel it is in 
itself, and yet so perfectly subordinated in its exte- 
rior lines to the church, that it helps rather than 
hinders the general effect. This is not often true 
of elaborate choirs. The carving here seems to grow 
naturally from the great stone columns. It is the 
foliage of the forest or the vine that seems to love 
to cling about such noble tree trunks. The orna- 
mental effect of it is more beautiful, but not more 
interesting, than the stories its figures tell about 
what happened in the Jewish days and in the time 
of Christ. There are more than three thousand of 
these figures. They are beautiful, deliciously quaint, 
and always suggestive of the story they mean to tell, 
although they are by no means perfect from the 
technical point of view. 

Curious stories are told about the artists who 
made this carving. Trupin was the chief of them, 
and he was an artist indeed. Yet he received but 



THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 16 

a few pennies a day for his work. His apprentices 
were paid still less. Some only received three cents 
a day. What artist would work in these days for 
such wages ? It must be remembered, however, that 
the penny then would fully equal the shilling now 
in purchasing power. 

This whole choir, with all its masterpieces of carv- 
ing in figures and decorative work, cost about two 
thousand dollars, and it gave employment to six or 
eight good workmen for fourteen years. If this sum 
should represent ten times as much in actual value 
to-day, it still seems scarcely possible that such 
work could be done for such a price. The groups of 
figures are so numerous and so complicated that any 
detailed description of them would be uninteresting 
except to a student. In the smaller figures there 
is a good deal of a kind of grotesque humor. The 
portraits of the artists are curiously brought in. 
They seem almost like caricatures, and yet the faces 
are so lifelike that they must be good likenesses. 

Mr. Ruskin says of it: "It is tastefully devel- 
oped, flamboyant, just past the fifteenth century, and 
has some Flemish stolidity mixed with the playing 
French fire of it ; but wood-carving was the Picard's 
joy from his youth up, and, so far as I know, there 
is nothing else so beautiful cut out of the goodly 
trees of the world. Sweet and young-grained oak 



16 THE CATHEDEAL OF AMIENS 

it is : oak trained and chosen for such work, sound 
now as four hundred years since. Under the carver's 
hand it seems to cut like clay, to fold like silk, to 
grow into living branches, to leap like living flame. 
Canopy crowning canopy, pinnacle piercing pinna- 
cle — it shoots and wreathes itself into an enchanted 
glade, inextricable, imperishable, fuller of leafage than 
any forest, and fuller of story than any book." 

On the outside of the choir and in the two 
transepts are some most quaint and curious bas- 
reliefs. They illustrate scenes from the lives of St. 
Firmin and St. Salve, the patron saints of Amiens, 
the life of John the Baptist, the history of St. James 
the great, and the expulsion of the money-changers 
from the temple. These are almost as interesting 
as the wooden carvings of the choir, though by no 
means so beautiful. 

A part of the head of John the Baptist is said 
to be here. There must be, I suppose, documents 
of great length to prove its genuineness, but I had 
no opportunity to examine them. 

The graves of the two bishops who built this 
church are marked by two of the most remarkable 
bronze monuments in France. It is said that only 
two others remain equal to these, — the monuments 
to the children of St. Louis at St. Denis. The others 
were destroyed at the time of the Revolution. 



THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS 17 

It is well that tlie monuments of those who 
built the first perfect temple to God in France 
should remain here undisturbed, and it is fitting that 
the last thought as one leaves this glorious church 
should be one of thankfulness to the noble, self- 
sacrificing, loving, and pious bishops, whose lifelong 
efforts achieved so mighty a task, and whose earnest 
hope it was that blessings should come to man from 
their church long ages after they had gone to their 
rest. 



CHAPTER III 

BEAUVAIS AND CHARTRES 

The first sight of the cathedral of Beauvais is 
disappointing. The building is out of proportion — 
far too high for its length. The reason is that the 
Beauvais architect attempted far more than he could 
achieve, partly because his piers were not sufficient 
for their work, and partly, also, because the purse 
of the little town was by no means long enough to 
carry out his design even if it could have been pos- 
sible under the most favorable conditions to erect 
the building as he planned, which is certainly very 
doubtful. 

To surpass the apse of Amiens in height and bring 
still more light into the building with even less 
use of masonry and larger openings for stained glass 
was a task which perhaps no architect of those days 
— not even a Gothic one — could have achieved. 
The result of the attempt was partial failure. A 
large part of the building tumbled down, and the 
rest had to be strengthened by the insertion of 

18 



BEAUVAIS AND CHARTRES 19 

piers not in the architect's design. Then came the 
other collapse of the finances, and the church was 
never built at all beyond the transepts, and even 
these were a later addition. Ambition here over- 
leaped itself, and the attempt to surpass Amiens 
resulted in so complete a failure that the church 
of Beauvais seems now from the outside almost like 
a ruin. 

Yet its choir is the loftiest in the world in a Gothic 
cathedral, considerably higher than that of Amiens. 
In this choir are three tiers of windows, the lower 
ones about the chapels, the next in the clerestory, 
and the third touching with their pointed arches 
the very roof itself. It is not easy to believe that 
even the smallest of these windows would seem 
very large in most churches, while the towering 
ones above that almost reach the roof would be far 
too high for any but the very largest buildings. 

The same general plan is adopted as at Amiens, 
yet the effect is not so perfect because the lines of 
support are not so plainly to be seen. The dizzy 
height is attained, but at the cost of symmetry and 
with an uneasy suggestion of insecurity. Some one 
has well said of the cathedrals of Amiens and Beau- 
vais that "Amiens seems a giant in repose, while 
Beauvais is a colossus on tip-toe." The vast height 
is not the only wonder of this choir and apse and 



20 BEAUVAIS AND CHARTRES 

these transepts. The stained glass is very fine, 
especially the lower windows of the chapels about 
the high altar, which glow with brilliant yellow, 
amethyst, and topaz and have many a story to tell 
about the lives of the saints. Sometimes a certain 
grotesqueness invades even the stained glass. That 
is not the case in the cathedral at Beauvais, but 
there is a remarkable example of it in another 
church in the town, — the very ancient church of 
St. Etienne. 

There is a window here containing what is called 
the " Tree of Jesse," which is certainly one of the 
most extraordinary examples of stained glass work 
that can be found anywhere. In the lower part 
of the window are nine divisions. Poor old Jesse 
lies placidly slumbering in the middle one of the 
three lower divisions. Two great tree trunks grow, 
— one from each of his sides and reach over into 
the divisions of the window at his right and his 
left. Here they blossom into a king for every pane 
of the window, and more curious examples of royalty 
it would be hard to imagine. They are all splen- 
didly arrayed, though there might be a question as 
to their choice of garments. 

Solomon is much the funniest. He has on a poke 
bonnet of the most pronounced New England type, 
though brilliantly yellow in color, and with a crown 



BEAUVAIS AND CHARTEES 21 

on top of it. There is an immense jewel under the 
bonnet just over his forehead. Why it is there, or 
how it came there, no one can tell. There is a 
mixture of splendor and ludicrousness about him 
that would make an anchorite laugh. 

King David is but little better off in the way of 
dress, but his big harp gives him a kind of seemly 
occupation, and is a little more in keeping with his 
life and character than any article in the most 
unfortunate costume of his son. 

Above them all is an immense white lily, the 
topmost blossom of the tree, from the midst of 
whose petals emerges the Virgin, with a blaze of 
glory about her. 

In the companion window on the right are scenes 
from the Last Judgment. There is a violently red 
devil, with a full equipment of horns, hoofs, and 
tail, who is holding open the huge mouth of a 
brilliantly green dragon, with an enormous, pro- 
truding blue eye. Into this mouth lesser devils 
are thrusting the unfortunate souls of the wicked 
as fast as they can cram them down. The dragon's 
capacity for eating without swallowing seems to 
be almost unlimited. 

Strangely enough, these windows, when seen 
from a distance, are very beautiful in color, and 
there is some really good composition in them. 



22 BEAUVATS AND CHARTRES 

There are many other interesting places in Beau- 
vais, some of them strikingly picturesque, but it 
will be more interesting to contrast the stained 
glass of Chartres with that of this half-finished, 
but most impressive, cathedral. 

In its stained glass Chartres is certainly one of 
the most beautiful churches in the world. One 
hundred and sixty windows of perfect form and 
color made at the time when this exquisite art 
was at the very acme of its perfection ! No one 
who has not seen it can even imagine the glory 
of them. The Gothic architect always worked for 
this effect of light. For this were the columns 
made as slender as possible, the stonework as deli- 
cate and light as it could be and still stand strong ; 
for this were the buttresses and flying buttresses 
made that the walls might stand firm even although 
they seem to be almost all of glass. The reason for 
this method of construction can easily be known 
in every Gothic church, but the actual effect of it 
can hardly be appreciated anywhere else in the 
same way as at Chartres. 

This, then, is a new impression — something that 
has been dreamed of but never really seen before 
' — this magnificent effulgence of gorgeous yet sub- 
dued color that tells why Gothic aisles were "pict- 
ured aisles," How can it be described? In other 




THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES 



BEAUVAIS AND CHARTRES 23 

churches the imagination has put into the windows 
the colors that must have been meant to be there, 
but at Cliartres they are really before the eye, and 
they surpass the dream. Here is the perfect blend- 
ing of color and light. In how many different ways 
it can be produced! It is a revelation. The win- 
dows are not alike except in their perfect beauty. 
In some red predominates, in others blue, in others 
again a most delicious amber. Forms, figures, 
designs, combinations — all are infinitely varied, 
and yet by some marvel of art all produce an 
overwhelming effect of the magnificence of color, 
beautiful in itself, but illuminated and made to live 
by the sun. 

It is useless to tell about the designs of the 
different windows, because these must be studied 
out with care and difficulty even in the church 
itself. They do not count at all in the general 
effect, although it is interesting to know that many 
of these glorious windows were given to the church 
by guilds of trade in the city, and each guild that 
gave one sought to commemorate itself by putting 
some thought of its trade into the design of the 
window. 

The armorers, and the shoemakers, the weavers, 
the workers in many an industrial art, are here 
remembered by their gifts. But fine as it is to 



24 BEAtrVAIS AND CHAKTRES 

think how these trades-unions wished to make 
their church noble and beautiful, it must be con- 
fessed that they are hardly thought of beneath the 
windows of Chartres. The general effect is too 
superb to permit of lingering on any study of detail 
for one who must take away only an impression 
because he cannot stay long enough to study the 
whole design carefully. One thought, however, is 
here impressed upon the mind as perhaps nowhere 
else among the Gothic churches, and that is the 
thought of the place that stained glass holds as a 
distinguishing characteristic of Gothic architecture. 
It used to be said that the pointed arch determined 
this style. Afterward the architects concluded that 
the buttress and the flying buttress really distinguish 
Gothic from other kinds of building. Perhaps as 
true a definition as any may be the giving as much 
space in the walls as possible to stained glass. 

Chartres certainly stands clearly out with its 
testimony that such was the principal aim of the 
architect who planned this building so wondrously 
illuminated. 



CHAPTER IV 

TOURS 

The cathedral of Tours has a beauty quite its 
own, different from Amiens, Beauvais, or Chartres, 
"or any of the others. The beauty of its facade 
and its stained glass are its greatest charms, al- 
though the nave is very fine, and the peculiar 
arrangement of windows over the west portal is 
almost unique, and, from the inside, exceedingly 
beautiful. 

In the fagade the richness of what might be called 
decorated lines is simply extraordinary. The inter- 
lacing arches, points, and pinnacles are so numerous 
that the eye can hardly follow them all in the course 
of their orderly architectural development. There 
used to be the ornament of niches filled with saints 
and kings. The niches are there, but the statues are 
not, for the Revolution swept these away. If the 
architect's original design had been carried out and 
his work not disturbed, this fagade would be in some 
ways even richer than that of Amiens. The construc- 

25 



26 TOURS 

tive part is all here, even nearly to the top of the 
towers, and the beauty of it is marvellous. 

The loss of the statues is pitiful because of the 
sad emptiness of the vacant niches. The sculptures 
might not have been great works of art, but even 
if they were far from great they are needed to com- 
plete this facade of Tours cathedral. 

There is another trouble, which is that the towers 
are in the Renascence manner, which does not har- 
monize with the Gothic. Still these tower-tops are 
so far above the rest that they interfere but little 
with the general effect — less, in fact, than if they had 
not been completed at all, as is the case at Amiens. 

The first impression of this fagade is that the 
architect has so harmoniously composed and con- 
structed it that it goes to the heart at the very first 
glance with a thought of that upward springing — 
that quick look toward heaven that only true Gothic 
can give. Afterward comes a malediction on the 
Revolution. Why were these iconoclasts permitted 
to do such dire damage to the greatest works of the 
architect's art? At first it seems unpardonable, and 
then comes the thought of the provocation. The 
blinded dwellers in the cave-houses by the Loire 
might well have destroyed anything if they thought 
freedom could thus come to them ; and surely those 
who lived always in the darkness of caves could not 



TOUES 27 

be expected to have a keen appreciation of what is 
beautiful to the eye. The priests, who prayed in 
vain, if they prayed at all, to save them from their 
sufferings, had been not only powerless but oppres- 
sive. They had added burdens to the daily life, 
promising a reward beyond but offering little here, 
and the saints seemed to share in this view of the 
peasant's life on earth. Therefore the people, once 
getting the power, took all into their own hands, and 
being perforce blind because of long living in dark- 
ness, tore down together the evil and the good, hav- 
ing no power of discrimination. Alas ! for the facade 
of Tours. Alas ! for the windows and the monuments. 
Alas ! for many a noble building gone forever. 

Not all the windows of Tours cathedral were de- 
stroyed. Many still remain, and they give a glory to 
the church. Nearly all those about the lofty choir 
are preserved intact, just as they were meant to 
be in the architect's design. I do not know why 
they were spared in the Revolution; perhaps it was 
a " happy accident," such as saved the windows of 
St. Ouen. Nor do I know why they have not been 
spoken of more enthusiastically, for no description 
of them can be adequate without some enthusiasm. 
They tell of the lives of the saints whose num- 
bers and deeds never cease to be extraordinary. 
They also show the coats of arms of two or three 



28 TOUES 

sovereigns of France, and of the city of Tours with 
its clustered towers. 

It is most difficult to understand how such utterly 
dissimilar and incongruous subjects could have been 
used by the artist of the windows and wrought into a 
perfect harmony. It must be that the artist wor- 
shipped his art more than he did the saints, or the 
kings, or the cities, and therefore he subordinated all 
of them to the effect of color — the very soul and 
essence of the art of stained glass. 

The story of the windows may be found out by 
patient study, but while so studying the general 
effect is lost, and this is the chief glory of it. It is 
a radiant flood of light, and yet it is not full sunlight 
but light much subdued and softened. It is as if the 
full rays of the sun were too dazzling for mortal eyes, 
and therefore the parts of the rays that, joined, make 
all its whiteness must be taken separately and thus 
more gently led to the eye, that the beauty of each 
may be felt in turn — the red, the yellow, the green, 
the purple, and all the shades of them. If each part 
alone is so beautiful, a deeper thought is suggested 
about the glory of the sun ray in which they all are 
merged. It may be there is some significance in it. 
It may be the artist thought only of beauty. The 
effect cannot be wholly analyzed, but it can partly be 
felt. These windows have their picturesque side, 



TOURS 29 

too, different from their religious and artistic sugges- 
tions. When the cardinals and bishops and priests 
with all their splendid train were beneath them, and 
when the kings and nobles of the land were there 
in all the richness of robes of court, or gleaming 
armor, what play of color there must have been ! 
How the tiaras and the crowns and the helmets 
would softly glow and gleam as they passed beneath 
window after window, each touching them with a 
different hue : and as they neared the high altar the 
candle-light would add still another color note. 

What artist can rightly picture such scenes? Many 
have tried but few have succeeded, perhaps because 
there is, after all, a key-note of religion beneath all 
the gorgeous color, that must be struck if the picture 
is to be true. It cannot be thought that such great 
and faithful artists as made the windows of Tours 
cathedral worked without much religious inspiration. 
Their work was consecrated, at least in part, and it 
is not possible to understand it without appreciating 
to a certain extent the reverent worshipping spirit 
that prompted it. 

Through these windows come thoughts of God 
and the praise of Him, loveliest suggestions of na- 
ture's own beauty, and stories and pictures of the 
lives that were lived beneath the tender glories of 
their softened light. 



CHAPTER V 

CABN 

"William the Conqueror and Matilda, his wife, 
had married contrary to the rules of the Roman 
Church as to marriages between those related by 
blood. For this reason they sought absolution from 
the Pope, and it may be that the great churches at 
Caen were a part of their penance. Such is the his- 
tory of the foundation of many a church in France, 
though the buildings were carried on and brought to 
completion by those who had nothing to do with the 
sin of the founders. 

William founded the Abbaye aux Hommes, Ma- 
tilda the Abbaye aux Dames. Both are magnificent 
churches. They are especially interesting to those 
who have studied the Gothic architecture of France, 
and can find here a contrast to that style ; for these 
churches, although not wholly Norman, are partly 
so, and they show perhaps as well as any others what 
the Norman church-builder could do. His power is 
more in strength than in beauty. His people had 

30 




THE CASTLE OF FALAISE 



CAEN 31 

conquered others often. Probably he thought they 
always would conquer. The Gothic architects be- 
longed to a conquering people, too, but they do not 
express their thoughts of conquest in their churches. 
On the contrary, they seemed to be seeking the 
beauty of light. The contrast is interesting. 

The Abbaj^e aux Hommes at Caen has a most 
imposing fagade. There is no sculptured ornament 
about its porches, and yet it was the inspiration 
even of such fagades as that of Amiens. Here was 
the strength. Such buildings would stand unless 
the solid earth beneath them gave way. The Gothic 
architect took the strength and added the ornament. 

The same thought is suggested by the Abbaye aux 
Dames. The fagade is even more imposing than the 
other, but still there is no ornament such as the 
Gothic builder always uses. Nevertheless, there is 
a wonderful grandeur in the building. It seems 
almost like a fort of religion, built for defence and 
not at all for attack. Within these solid walls the 
noble ladies for whom Queen Matilda built the 
abbaye could live in peace. There could be no 
entrance for any one who wished to disturb their 
quietness. 

One part of this church, which is similar in posi- 
tion to the choir in Gothic cathedrals, is entirely 
shut off from the rest of the building. It was here 



32 CAEN 

that those women who had taken the veil wor- 
shipped, quite secluded from all the rest of the 
world. In the midst of them was, and still is, the 
tomb of Matilda herself. How many masses for 
the repose of the queen's soul must have been said 
around the simple slab of stone a little elevated 
above the pavement, that marks the place where 
her bones were laid ! 

The massive character of the Norman architecture 
is not well suited to church interiors. It is impos- 
ing because of its strength — but it does not admit 
enough of the light. The windows, both in the 
Conqueror's abbaye and that of his wife, are very 
small, except in the parts of the buildings added 
later, which are Gothic in style. There would have 
been no spires for the fa9ade of the Abbaye aux 
Hommes if the Norman builder's work had been 
let alone. He did not care any more about spires 
than he did about great windows. 

Neither aspiration nor light seems to have had 
much to do with his plan of building. He was 
very Roman in his ways, but he was not imagina- 
tive, nor was he poetical. Nevertheless, the great 
round arches rising one above the other to the top 
of the clerestory are certainly very impressive. It 
is a pity that William the Conqueror's church should 
ever have been touched by a Gothic architect. 



CAEN 33 

There should have been no spires, no apse with 
pointed lancet-windows. It should all have been 
left massive, strong, without ornament and dimly- 
lighted. This Norman spirit was grim enough, and 
certainly here at Caen it should find its fitting em- 
bodiment in stone ; for it was here that the great 
soldier's bones were laid, who perhaps better than 
any other man expressed in his life the essential 
typical qualities of the Norman character. 

It is a great pity, too, that the soldier-king's bones 
were not allowed to remain in the church he built. 
His tomb is there, but it is empty, and has long been 
so. The Calvinists threw his ashes to the winds. 
It seems a strange irony of fate that the man so 
irresistible in his life should have been quite de- 
serted at his death, and even his remains not allowed 
to lie in peace. The great Conqueror was buried 
by the private charity of one of his knights, and 
during the funeral services a peasant demanded 
money for the grave, which, as he claimed, was on 
his land, and had never been paid for. The bishop 
had to pay him before the funeral ceremonies could 
be completed. 

Caen is also fascinating because it shows so clearly 
the growth of the Gothic from the Norman architect- 
ure. One of the most beautiful Gothic spires in 
France is that of the church of St. Pierre. One 



S4 CAEN 

passes it in going from one abbaye to the other. It is 
an absolutely perfect example of early Gothic ; quite 
as beautiful in its lines even as the apse of Amiens. 
Mr. Ruskin would say that no higher praise could be 
given to a Gothic building, and he would be quite 
correct in saying so. Nevertheless, even such praise 
is deserved by the spire of St. Pierre. It is not richly 
ornamented, for it is of the early style just after the 
Norman, but it rises arch upon arch and pinnacle 
upon pinnacle, to the vanishing point against the 
sky with that grace, that uplifting spirit, only 
known to the Gothic builders. 

That first experience of Caen is hardly to be had 
elsewhere. To pass from the great Norman church 
of William to the equally great Norman church of 
his wife, and on the way to see an exquisite spire in 
quite a different style : it is rare, indeed, to see so 
many and so different noble monuments of religious 
building so closely grouped together. 

But the charm and interest of Caen are not ex- 
hausted even by the two abbayes and the wonderful 
spire of St. Pierre. There are most interesting exam- 
ples of the Renascence architecture also, especially 
the old Bourse, the court of which is extremely 
picturesque. When the architecture of the time of 
Francis I. is added to that of the Norman days and 
the time of the Gothic building, it would seem as 



CAEN 35 

if the cup of interest for an architect would be full 
to overflowing. 

Only a short distance from Caen is Falaise, where 
William the Conqueror was born. Here is one of 
the most interesting of the Norman castles of France. 
It was built like the chateaux of Touraine, on the 
top of a hill, but it was more strongly fortified than 
most of the castles by the Loire. It was a place for 
war. Luxury, ease, even comfort, had no part in it. 
The immense donjon keep is as stern as was the Bas- 
tille. The tower of Talbot beside it is just as stern, 
though taller and more beautiful in form. There 
were oubliettes in it and dungeons. 

These great towers look down upon the valley of 
the Ante, a little stream which does its best to fer- 
tilize the land about it, and succeeds, as the French 
streams have a habit of doing. 

Duke Robert of Normandy stood one day in the 
donjon at what they call a window, and he looked 
down at the stream and the valley far below. In the 
water was bathing Arlette, the daughter of a tanner. 
There were many tanners in Falaise then, and there 
are many now. The duke was charmed with the 
young girl, and she became William the Conqueror's 
mother. The room in which he was born is little 
better than a cell. It has, however, a chimney, and 
that must have seemed quite luxurious in those days. 



36 CAEN 

There was a recessed place for the bed, and some 
other recesses in the masonry, probably intended for 
toilet articles. There could have been little comfort 
about it, though possibly the walls were hung with 
tapestry. In this room, which seems like a cave in 
a vast mountain of masonry, the conqueror of Eng- 
land was born. In the great abbaye he built near by 
at Caen his bones were laid to rest, though not al- 
lowed to rest there. 

The story and the art of Caen and Falaise are 
intensely interesting to all who speak the English 
language. 



CHAPTER VI 

EOUEN 

In Rouen almost every form of Gothic architect- 
ure can be studied as perhaps in no other city. 
There were at one time thirty-two churches here. 
One-half were destroyed, mostly at the time of the 
Revolution. Sixteen remain, and in these can be seen 
very nearly all the French Gothic architect knew 
about church building ; and in the Palais de Justice 
can equally well be seen what he could do in civic 
architecture. 

The cathedral is wonderfully interesting and quite 
different, especially in the fagade, from any of the 
other great Gothic cathedrals. The contrast between 
this and other noted facades comes from the very cu- 
rious fact that although the ancient fa9ade was very 
beautiful, George d'Amboise, the famous cardinal 
of Louis XII.'s time, thought he could improve it 
by adding pinnacles and porches and the most elabo- 
rate sculptured ornament. All this lavish wealth 
of ornamentation was put on later by him. It formed 
^ 37 



38 ROUEN 

no part of the original design, and yet it is wonder- 
fully beautiful. 

The critics may talk as they please about too great 
elaboration, too close an approach to a debased style 
of Gothic. Nevertheless, the facade is one of the 
most interesting in Europe, and the porches at each 
side are no less remarkable. They are hardly to be 
surpassed anywhere in richness of ornament, and they 
are beautiful in form also. The beauty of their deli- 
cate traceries and the effect of the myriad statues 
and carvings that adorn them are only enhanced by 
contrast with the severer early pointed style which 
is seen in the lower part of the towers at either side 
of the facade. 

But beautiful, wonderful, as the cathedral is, the 
church of St. Ouen far surpasses it, perhaps because 
it is one of the very few Gothic churches in Europe 
carried to completion upon the original design. It 
may be added that it is one of the very few that are 
entirely finished. The first stone of St. Ouen was 
laid in 1318, and the principal part of the church was 
finished before 1500. That is a very short history for 
a Gothic church. The two spires of the facade were 
added later, but they are at least in sympathy with the 
design of the architect, though not quite as he would 
have wished. If one dreamed of pure Gothic at the 
very moment when richest ornament was combined 








m 



EOUEN" 39 

with purest line, he would find the realization of his 
dream at St. Ouen. There is no Gothic interior less 
interfered with by choir screen or chapels. Cer- 
tainly there is none more perfect in unity of style. 
These technical words mean little when one tries to 
suggest a thought of beauty. The secret of the 
beauty of St. Ouen is, as I think, closely connected 
with its columns. They rise together with the same 
lines and forms, and when they can all be seen from 
one end of the vast church to the other, it is better 
than if some were round and some square as happens 
sometimes, and far better than it would be if a great 
choir screen, however beautifully carved and orna- 
mented, prevented a complete view of the church 
from end to end. 

There is a custodian here, called the " Swiss," per- 
haps from some idea about the Pope's guard. He 
told me that he had taken Mr. Ruskin many times 
about the church of St. Ouen, within and without, 
and that he had heard him say there was no purer 
or finer example of Gothic architecture in existence. 
But these people who live in the church and point 
out its beauties every day to those who come to see 
it must be pardoned for a little enthusiasm some- 
times. It may be that Mr. Ruskin himself will have 
to beg forgiveness for the same fault. 

This church has a strange history. There were 



40 ROUEN 

three churches before this one on the same site. Of 
the latest of these three, built by a nephew of Wil- 
liam the Conqueror, only one small, round Norman 
tower remains. The present church was once an 
armory and a stable at the same time. This was in 
the days of the French Revolution. 

Curiously enough, such use of the church was not 
a misfortune, but a good happening. In order that 
there might not be draughts from the sides on the 
armory fires, the stained glass windows were left un- 
touched, and because the armorers, whose trade was 
similar to that of the iron-workers, greatly admired 
the hammered-iron screen about the choir, that was 
not disturbed either. Thus two of the most exqui- 
site works of art in St. Ouen were preserved by what 
some would call an accident, and others the hand of 
Providence. 

Another curious result of the use of the church as 
an armory is the effect of the smoke of the forges on 
the columns. This has given to the stone a bluish- 
gray color, very peculiar and extremely beautiful. 
The natural color of the stone was probably similar 
to that of the columns of the cathedral, which are 
almost yellow. St. Ouen, then, is one of the few 
churches which were helped by the French Revolu- 
tion. 

The central tower of this church is one of the 



KOtTEN 41 

most beautiful in Europe, the only one that sur- 
passes it being that of Burgos. The cap of the 
tower is in the form of the crown of Normandy, 
and its ornamentation is mostly the fleur-de-lis, as 
was that of the crown itself. 

But St. Ouen, with its columns and its tower, is 
not the only work of the Gothic art that is to be 
seen at Rouen. There is also the Palais de Justice. 
This most beautiful building shows that the same 
manner of construction that has been used with such 
wonderful effect in the churches may also be applied 
successfully to quite a different use. 

The town halls of Antwerp and Bruges are perhaps 
the most perfect examples of this use of the Gothic 
principles, but the Palais de Justice at Rouen is not 
far behind them in beauty. It is built about a court 
of which it surrounds three sides. The other side is 
left open for an entrance and to give light to the 
rooms within. The building is not high — two stories 
only in some parts, and three in others. It is not 
imposing, nor is there any effort for such an effect, 
but it is beautiful in a way most wonderful when 
one thinks what problem of usefulness the architect 
had to solve before he could think at all about the 
beauty of it. He had to provide both great and small 
rooms within, and all were to be well lighted. The 
building as a whole was to be symmetrical, and pleas- 



42 EOUEN 

ing in form and proportion. These were the first 
things to be thought of. After that came the ques- 
tion about where the ornament would best be placed, 
and what kind of ornament it should be. 

The architect chose to centralize the exterior orna- 
ment upon the piers at each side of the windows, 
and the pinnacles surmounting them. These are ex- 
quisitely carved and greatly varied in size and form. 
The judges needed a small room into which they 
might retire for deliberation. To meet this need, and 
at the same time vary the lines of his fagade, the 
architect made an oriel window, and he put it in the 
centre where its beauty would best be appreciated. 
This oriel window is one of the finest examples of 
civic Gothic architecture in Europe. 

Within this building, whose exterior is so charming, 
are noble halls and other rooms of great size. One 
of these halls is called " La Salle des Pas perdus " — 
a free translation of which would be "The Room 
where Time is wasted." It means that the lawyers 
walked up and down in this hall with their clients, 
consulting with them there instead of doing that in 
private rooms, as is the custom nowadays. Surely it is 
a satire upon the legal profession to call such a place 
by a name that is really insulting. The hall itself 
is worthy of a better name, for it is lofty, spacious, 
beautiful in proportion, and truly Gothic in spirit. 



ROUEN 43 

The court room where the trials of criminals take 
place is very fine. It has a most splendid ceiling of 
oak — not in the ordinary raftered form, but with 
most intricate, interlacing beams with pendants a 
few feet apart which must have been intended to 
support candelabra, though none are there now. 
Above the chair of the chief justice, on the wall 
behind it, is a large crucifix. This is always in a 
French criminal court, and it is used in the oath 
taken by the witnesses. 

It is a great pity there is no association with Joan 
of Arc in this magnificent building. Her story 
touches with poetry, romance, and the spirit of relig- 
ion, every place which was the scene of any event in 
her most remarkable life. 

She was not tried in the Palais de Justice of 
Rouen, but in a round tower with a conical top in 
quite another part of the town. The real tower no 
longer exists, but it has been replaced by one similar 
to it on the same spot. 

The original tower was part of a castle which has 
altogether disappeared. Nor can one be sure exactly 
where this peasant maiden, the saviour of her coun- 
try, was burned at the stake. There is a fountain in 
the Place de la Pucelle with a hideous modern statue 
above, which was once supposed to mark the place, 
but further investigation has shown that the very 



44 EOUEN 

spot where she was martyred was not there but a 
short distance away in the market-place. A tablet 
of granite with a commemorative inscription has 
been inserted in the sidewalk by the market upon 
the spot where it is thought the stake was raised and 
the fagots piled up about the heroic Maid of Dom- 
r^my. It is in the very midst of the busy life of 
that people whose existence as a nation owed so much 
to her devotion. 

Impressive as this thought is, it is more impressive 
still to think that a monument has been raised to her 
honor upon the hill-top of Bon Secours which over- 
looks Rouen, and that people visit it as they would 
go to the shrine of a saint. 

A more commanding, beautiful, and impressive site 
for such a monument could hardly be imagined. 
The river Seine, broad and strong, flows slowly by 
the foot of the hill. It seems to wish to linger there 
and lift a mirrored form to answer like an echo to 
the almost speaking spirit of the statue above. 

Below rise the spires and towers of the cathedral, 
of St. Ouen, St. Andr6, and the tower of the maiden's 
trial. These come from the olden time. There are 
chimneys too, many of them suggesting the busy 
industries which might not have been there now 
unless Joan of Arc had done what she was called 
upon to do. 



ROUEN 45 

The monument itself is quite elaborate in con- 
struction. There is a chapel, and above this rises the 
structure in which the statue stands. There are two 
smaller structures of similar character on either side, 
in which are figures of saints. There is no need of 
describing anything but the statue itself, which is 
one of the greatest works of the art of sculpture 
that has been produced even by this wonderful 
school of France — the third distinctively great one 
of the world. B'arrias was the sculptor, and he was 
certainly inspired in his work with some spirit that 
has made this statue more alive even than ordinary 
people are. It is not the living Joan of Arc alone — 
it is what she did, what she thought, all the trial and 
trouble of her time, and the spiritual power that pre- 
vailed not only in the battles but at the stake. 

This simple maid, this peasant girl of Domrdmy, 
believed in her God and her country, and because of 
her belief came her success. It is the power of faith. 
There was courage with it, too — nor did that fail 
even when the flames rose about her. She asked her 
confessor to hold the crucifix higher, that she might 
see it above the smoke. The Cardinal of Winches- 
ter, who was looking on, became impatient, and 
asked the priest who held the crucifix whether he 
meant to keep them there until after dinner-time. 
The truth was with the woman unjustly condemned 



46 ROUEN 

— not with the sneering prelate. It is no wonder 
the French wish to have Joan of Arc canonized. 
There are few saints in all the long calendar who 
better deserve the halo of their sainthood. 

"Oh ! CapLive maid upon thy hill-top lone 
Keeping perpetual vigil o'er the land 
Thy young heart broke to save, forever stand 
Clothed in immortal vs^hiteness, and o'ershone 
By the wide heavens — a victim to atone 
By thy pure consecration for the crime 
And shame, and madness of vpild, vs^arring time. 
Yea, stand through all. the ages to command 
From out the vast unseen by the strong plea 
That clasps those fettered hands, a bright array 
Of holy shapes, whose white wings silently 
Shall lead thy dear, loved land upon her way 
To victory divine on fields of life 
Where Light and Darkness wage supernal strife." 



CHAPTER VII 

MONT ST. MICHEL 

The two dearest places in France to poets, artists, 
and historians are Carcassonne and Mont St. Michel. 
The two do not greatly resemble each other. Their 
spirit is quite different, but it seems like going into 
another century to visit either of them. The mar- 
vellous resurrection of a life long past which is seen 
in both is partly the work of M. VioUet-le-Duc who 
restored them, and it is certainly due in part also to 
the wisdom and patriotism of the French which made 
them willing to restore their ancient monuments 
however great the cost might be. 

Mont St. Michel rises from the sea between 
Avranches and Cancale. It is very near the border- 
line between the Norman and the Breton, and it 
seems as if both peoples had helped in the building 
of it because of its wonderful union of strength and 
picturesqueness. It was an abbey once, one of the 
richest and most powerful in France, and afterward 
it was a fort. Now it is an historical monument, 
visited by throngs of people every day. 

47 



48 MONT ST. MICHEL 

There are hours when Mont St. Michel does not 
rise from the sea at all, but is surrounded by a vast 
waste of gray sand which the receding tide has left 
bare. It seems, then, far removed from the habita- 
tions of men, built for some mysterious purpose in 
a sad and lonely place to which none would wish 
to come. It is most grand and impressive in such 
a solitude. Strangely enough, when the tide comes 
in, and the place is surrounded by water, this feeling 
of complete isolation disappears. The reason must 
be that it seems natural to approach places in boats, 
while it is not usual to build great churches and 
castles in the midst of a desert of wet sand. This 
peculiar situation, now in the midst of rippling 
water, now encircled by a great gray sand plain, 
gives to Mont St. Michel an interest quite its own, — 
enough to make it unique even apart from the won- 
derful charm of its architecture. 

The historical associations of the place are perhaps 
as interesting as anything about it. It was dedicated 
to St. Michael, the patron saint of high places, be- 
cause it happened one day that a Benedictine monk, 
Aubert by name, had a vision in which the mighty 
conqueror of the dragon appeared to him, and, point- 
ing to a rock rising from the sea, said he must found 
a monastery there. Aubert did so. He had no 
trouble in finding a name for it ; for when the saint 




L 



m^^ 






MONT ST. MICHEL 49 

pointed to the liigh rock as the place for the build- 
ing, he must have meant that the church should 
be called by his own name. And so it was. Natu- 
rally, this monk, Aubert, was made a saint afterwards. 

The story of this vision is represented in a very 
quaint bas-relief over the gateway that gives entrance 
to the court in front of the old church. Aubert, 
apparently just awakened, and still half reclining, 
looks where the finger of the angel points, and there 
is a great rock, and a lamb grazing on the top of it. 
Perhaps here begin the contrasts of St. Michel, — 
the sternness of the towering rock, the gentleness of 
the lamb, together in the vision of the monk. 

Not very long after the abbey was founded, it 
became a fort as well as a monastery. Rollo, the 
first Duke of Normandy, took it under his protection, 
and used it for military purposes. When his de- 
scendant, William, went over to conquer England, 
Mont St. Michel was able to help him with several 
vessels, doubtless well manned, for the monks knew 
how to fight in those days, and even some of the 
bishops too, like Odo, "the fighting bishop of Ba- 
yeux," who was William the Conqueror's brother. 

Spiritual and military strength seem to have been 
combined here in about equal proportions for a long 
time. The monastery had a great reputation for 
its sanctity, and the fort could not be taken even 



50 MONT ST. MICHEL 

by Henry V., whose armies had overrun all Nor- 
mandy after the battle of Agincourt. 

The contrasts which are so striking at Mont 
St. Michel begin to become more and more distinct 
and sharply defined. The monks were praying and 
singing and doing penance in the church and 
the cloisters on the hill-top, where the watchword 
of their religion was peace, while fierce battle was 
being waged about the walls and towers and ram- 
parts below. 

In those old days the attacking soldiers could 
not win because of the strength of the place, and, 
therefore, the monks prayed on in peace. Later, a 
more insidious foe attacked the reverend brethren, 
and they were banished because of immorality. 
They were replaced by another order, and after 
that came the final conquest of Mont St. Michel, — 
the conquest of the pilgrims. They came here by 
the thousand. The old parish church, which is now, 
and has been for years, the place of worship of the 
little town below the fortress monastery, is fairly full 
of the banners and votive offerings of those who 
came from near and from far to worship at this 
sacred shrine. For them the portcullis was raised, — 
for them the bridge was lowered. They had wel- 
come entrance where the hosts of Agincourt's hero 
could not by any means enter. 



MONT ST. MICHEL 51 

But the brave defenders who resisted Henry V. 
must not be forgotten. They were great soldiers. 
Louis d'Estouteville was their chief, and there were 
many noble knights with him. 

There is a house near the parish church, — the 
church of the pilgrims, — the house of Du Guesclin, 
the best and bravest among the French chivalry 
of his time. It is now a museum, where many 
curious things are to be seen, among them Du Gues- 
clin's library, consisting of a few enormous volumes 
resembling in size and shape the old missals and 
service-books of the church that one finds in the 
sacristies of the oldest cathedrals. Here are the 
coats of arms of d'Estouteville himself, and of all 
those who helped him defend the place against the 
English during two sieges, in 1417 and 1423. 

Close by these warlike emblems are the " Treas- 
ures of St. Michael," crowns and heraldic collars, 
vessels for holding the sacrament when it was ele- 
vated before the people, and many other such things 
— all of them gifts of pilgrims. These are all modern, 
for the irreverent soldiers of the Revolution despoiled 
the ancient monastery of all its vast treasure of gold 
and jewels. Here, as elsewhere in this singular place, 
the implements of religion and of war are side by 
side. 

All this is only a preface to Mont St. Michel. 



62 MONT ST. MICHEL 

The real entrance is not that at the end of the long 
causeway that leads from the road to Pontorson. 
That gateway only pierces the walls about the base 
of the rock, — walls tower-crowned, like those of 
Aigues-Mortes, but not so high nor defended by so 
many towers as those of St. Louis's seaport. Within 
these were lines of ramparts which wind about the 
hill, gradually ascending until the monastery is 
reached. These are fortified in all ways known to 
mediaeval warfare. It is plain the monks did not 
trust their defence to the spiritual arm any more 
than did the Bishop of Carcassonne. There was 
always the idea of war about Mont St. Michel — 
possibly because the saint himself was so great a 
conqueror. 

The- long ascent of the winding ramparts would 
be tiresome were it not that there is so much of 
interest to be seen at every step of the way. 

At last comes the real entrance, — a great arch 
built at the top of a steep stone stairway. Strangely 
enough, although it is the real entrance to the won- 
ders of the monastery, it opens into the Salle des 
Gardes, the soldiers' room. This is a most curious 
apartment built on different levels connected by 
flights of steps and with an immense fireplace in 
the lower part. 

But when this martial hall is passed, the path leads 



MONT ST. MICHEL 53 

steeply up between the buildings of the bishop and 
the chief officers of the monastery on one side, and 
the church on the other. There are bridges con- 
necting the two to give private entrance to the 
church for the officiating clergy, and below the 
bridges were portcullises to help the soldiers defend 
them. 

Penetrating farther and passing below the bridges 
of the priests, there is no longer anything to suggest 
a thought of battle, any more than there is in Car- 
cassonne's glorious cathedral. 

On entering the church, upon the very top of the 
rock there comes a vision of columns and arches, 
Norman and Gothic, almost overwhelming at first, 
so imposing are the massiye piers and round arches 
of the Norman, so inspiring the graceful, upreaching 
lines of the Gothic builder's work. 

The comparison of the magnificent stately Norman 
nave and the exquisite delicate Gothic choir and tran- 
septs is most instructive, but it is not so interesting as 
that between the crypt and the cloisters. It would 
be well if these could be seen one directly after the 
other, but this can hardly be, for they are in different 
parts of the vast building. The crypt is under the 
church ; the cloisters crown the Gothic " Marvel " 
on the other side of the rock. Nevertheless, they 
should be kept together in thought, for the contrast 



54 MONT ST. MICHEL 

between them is a never-to-be-forgotten lesson in 
architecture. 

The columns of the crypt are so vast and so 
numerous that the Norman architect seems to have 
thought he was called upon to support not one but 
a hundred churches. So enormous and so close to- 
gether are they that the place is dark. Only after 
the eye becomes accustomed to the gloom is it possi- 
ble to realize the grandeur, power, and beauty of 
these columns. They are great tree trunks that 
begin to branch out in the vault of the crypt, but 
tower higher in the columns of the church until 
their topmost branches intertwine in the arches of 
the nave and the transept and the choir amid the 
sunshine of the painted windows. 

Far above in the full light of day are the cloisters 
— one of the most exquisite, delicately graceful, 
and richly ornamented of all Gothic structures. 
There is certainly some influence of the Moor upon 
the architecture here, for the cloistered court strongly 
resembles the Court of the Lions at the Alhambra. 
In both the carvings are of the richest beauty and 
the forms of the columns are similar. It is strange 
that these styles should come so closely together, for 
they had no sympathy in motive. It is strange, 
also, that one of the most fanciful, almost playfully 
decorated of Gothic buildings should be here in this 



MONT ST. MICHEL 55 

old Benedictine monastery on the top of a sea-girt 
rock. It seems as if some magician's wand had 
touched the cold stone, and made the stems of 
plants spring from it, and then these blossomed 
of t?iemselves into all manner of lovely foliage and 
flowers. When this beautiful thing had come to 
pass, the prayerful, earnest spirit of man added 
figures and groups that might tell stories of the 
life of Him who had taught the highest. The 
charm of it all is not to be told in words, 
but it comes back in dreams to those who have 
seen it. 

I have said that these cloisters are a part of the 
" Marvel." Below them is the Salle des Chevaliers, 
and below that the cellar of the monks, but this is 
only one-half of the building, for there are three 
great halls connecting with these, the monks' dormi- 
tory, the refectory, and the room for the distribution 
of alms. The whole six great structures form one 
building. They have earned the name of " Marvel," 
partly because of the immense difficulty of building 
them at all in such a place, and partly on account 
of the very short time required for their construc- 
tion, for they were all built in twenty-five years — 
from 1203 to 1228. 

The thirteenth-century Gothic of France is pecu- 
liarly fine. These halls partake of its spirit, al- 



56 MONT ST. MICHEL 

though they are somewhat later than the purest 
work of that style. 

The Salle des Chevaliers is one of the noblest 
Gothic halls in Europe, superior, I think, even to 
the great Hall of the States-General at Blois. Mas- 
sive round columns support the vaulted roof. They 
have not clustered columns about them, as in later 
Gothic work, but they do have beautifully carved 
capitals, with bold projections from which rise the 
superb pointed arches of the vault. There are three 
rows of them, and they make the room seem like 
three aisles of a great cathedral, and yet they are not 
near enough together to interfere with the unity of 
the whole effect. The gray stone is nowhere touched 
by color, but it is flooded by the sunshine from the 
windows on the side toward the sea. The impres- 
sion of it is that here strength, grace, and ornament 
are joined in perfect proportion. 

In this room the superiors of the monastery met 
and deliberated about its spiritual and worldly affairs. 
Its name, however, comes from the fact that here 
Louis XT. founded his order of the " Chevaliers de 
Mont St. Michel." The decoration of the order was 
the collar of St. Michael — a very rich necklace, it 
might be called, which hung low down on the breast, 
and was made of the scallop shells sacred to the pil- 
grims of St. James linked together by the cords 



MONT ST. MICHEL 57 

those pilgrims wore, with a pendent medallion of St. 
Michael slaying the dragon. The honor of this order 
was greatly coveted. 

The historical suggestions of the room partake of 
the spirit of Mont St. Michel, because of the start- 
ling contrasts. There are the holy fathers sitting 
among these columns and caring for the needs of 
the church — there is the crafty, cruel, yet most able 
king sitting there too, and strengthening his throne 
by a new order of knighthood, and then there are 
the knights whom he created gathered there, each 
wearing his superb collar, and all discussing affairs 
of state and of war. 

The other halls are not so interesting as the clois- 
ters, the church, or the Salle des Chevaliers, but 
nevertheless they are most impressive, and of very 
pure and noble architecture. The dormitory of the 
monks is a grand Gothic room. Its beauty is not 
disturbed by partitions, for there were no cells in it. 
The beds were placed side by side all in the one long 
hall. These monks seem to have been unusually 
sociable. Not only did they all sleep in the same 
room, but they ate in the same room, too, — the refec- 
tory, which is below the dormitory. This also is an 
immense hall. One end was partitioned off for a 
kitchen, and the great chimney pieces where the 
cooking was done still remain. Below this again is 



68 MONT ST. MICHEL 

another hall as large as either of the others, in which 
alms were distributed to the dependents of the mon- 
astery. 

It is not far from these stately rooms to the dun- 
geons, which were as dark and cruel as the others are 
full of light and the spirit of devotion. Strange that 
there should have been an iron cage like that of Car- 
dinal Balue at the very door of the crypt that holds 
up the church! Strange that dungeon after dun- 
geon, unlighted caves in a cliff of masonry, should 
be beneath the sacred places where monks prayed 
and bread was given to the poor ! But not stranger 
perhaps than other mysteries in this inexplicable 
place. And yet all that we have seen thus far has 
been under the light of day. Even the dungeons 
might catch a gleam of it here and there. The clois- 
ters were full of it, and it streamed into the church 
through the stained glass windows. This full sun- 
light everywhere is not the light that romantic 
painters or writers choose. Scott said that no one 
had seen Melrose Abbey who had not seen it by 
the light of the moon. 

We sat together, talking, late in the evening, 
thinking not of moon or tide, but of what we had 
seen during the day. The full moon rose and the 
tide came in. St. Michael's Mount was surrounded 
by water. Why not take a boat and row about it ? 



MONT ST. MICHEL 59 

Down into the streets of the little town we went and 
at last the boatmen were awakened. They came 
down the narrow street and we went with them to 
the beach. The boat was unloosed and we were 
afloat, not on the waters we know but on those of 
our dreams. Silently except for the plash of the oar 
we passed beneath the outer walls whose towers 
loomed up more grandly in the night. Farther 
away we went and then we saw the ramparts and 
the walls silvered by the moon. Farther still we 
went and the " Marvel " rose above us. The soft, 
but brilliant light touched every arch, every window, 
every tower. No one could tell exactly where each 
hall was, for there is a mystery in moonlight ; but it 
was sure that all were there, and not only that, — the 
story of them was there. In this almost magical 
light, with this dreamy sound of the oars' slow plash 
Mont St. Michel sprang again to life as it could not 
beneath the full rays of the sun. 

Attacking hosts were about it. They were baffled 
by French heroes. Saints were on the moonlit rock- 
top — saints from whose visions came all the wonder 
of it. Prisoners were in the dungeons. There the 
moon does not shine, but there are deep shadows that 
tell of the captives' sufferings. There is the martial 
glory of the fortress, the spiritual ecstasy of the 
church and the cloister, the moan of the weary 



60 MONT ST. MICHEL 

prisoner, the commanding majesty of the Knights' 
Hall. 

There is no light in it all now. These vast halls 
are empty. The vigilant custodians of this great 
historical monument of France sleep after the ardu- 
ous labors of the day. There is no sign of life in all 
the immense fortress-monastery. There is no one 
on the waters of the rising tide about it. Slowly, 
rhythmically, the oars plash. Every instant the 
moon gives a new picture of Mont St. Michel. At 
last all seems like a dream, and as the boat touches 
the sand when we come back it is not easy to remem- 
ber the truth of daylight because of the glamour of 
this moonlight mystery upon such a place. 

It may be that the real truth of it now is not far 
from dreamland, quite such a picture as could only 
be seen beneath the moon's rays, for Mont St. Michel 
is no part of the life of to-day. It is a resurrection 
of the past. It is the ghost of medisevalism walking 
abroad, fully to be seen in the moonlight, and in the 
moonlight alone. 

The spirit of times long past forever incarnate in 
stone, lives upon this rock to tell of heroes and of 
saints. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CARCASSONNE 

There cannot be many places in the world that 
produce so profound an eifect upon the mind,. the 
imagination, and the sense of beauty as the old 
walled town of Carcassonne in ancient Languedoc. 

Toledo, in Spain, is a walled town too, and one of 
the most interesting in Europe, but it is far inferior 
in charm to this French stronghold of days long 
past. How long past are the days when Carcassonne 
was founded, or even the time when it had a rec- 
ognized existence as a city of some importance, no 
man can tell. Its early history is mostly lost. 
Enough remains, however, to show that it existed 
long before the Christian era. 

As M. Viollet-le-Duc says, it was in the year 
636 of the calendar of Rome that the Roman senate, 
on the advice of Lucius Crassus, decided to estab- 
lish a colony in this part of France, and Carcas- 
sonne was chosen as one of the chief points for 
its defence, because it commanded one of the prin- 
cipal roads that led into Spain. 

61 



62 CARCASSONNE 

It was in the year 70 B.C. that Carcassonne 
was placed among the " chosen noble cities." It 
was then made a citadel, a "castellum," by the 
Romans. From this time until the fourth cen- 
tury after Christ little is known of its history. 
Apparently it was a stronghold strong enough to 
preserve peace in its neighborhood during those 
centuries, and doubtless the humble folk who lived 
about it flourished exceedingly, tended their vines 
and their fields of grain, raised their cattle and 
horses, and knew little and cared less about the 
convulsions that were then rending the Roman 
world to pieces. 

But their peace did not endure long, for in the 
year 350 the Franks took the city, but they were 
afterward displaced by the Romans. Nearly a cen- 
tury later Theodoric, the king of the Visigoths, took 
it in his turn from the Romans, and by the treaty 
made in the year 439 Carcassonne remained in the 
possession of Theodoric. 

From this time on the peaceful days of the place 
were ended. The Visigoths made it a most impor- 
tant fortress. Clovis laid siege to it in the year 
508, but he was unable to take it. The king of 
the Visigoths still held it. 

Then came the Moors, who did take it, and 
remained masters of it for a long time. They have 



CARCASSONNE 63 

left one magnificent square tower as their contri- 
bution to its defences. Afterward came Louis IX. 
and Philip the Bold, Pope Urban II., and many 
another who had to do with the history of tliis 
place. 

The historical associations of Carcassonne are so 
numerous, — they have to do with so many differ- 
ent peoples, — that the first impression about its 
history is confused, because it is hard to tell where 
the chief emphasis should be placed among all the 
scenes of its long story. 

Perhaps the siege and capture of it by Simon 
de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, the cruel persecutor 
of the Albigenses, is one of the most notable events 
in its history, although the siege of the place in 
1240 by Raymond de Trincavel, the last of the 
Vicomtes de Bezier, was hardly less remarkable. 
He came very near to capturing the city, but failed 
on account of reinforcements sent by the king of 
France. 

But it is perhaps better, certainly it is pleasanter, 
not to study out the ancient history of Carcassonne, 
but to live in its atmosphere for a day. Here 
one forgets that this is the nineteenth century. 
There is nothing that seems to have anything to 
do with modern ways of living. 

After climbing the steep ascent to the Porte 



64 CARCASSONNE 

Narbonnaise, one sees the lofty, crenellated walls, 
the massive towers pierced with many a loophole 
for the archers. Is it possible that entrance will be 
given over this narrow bridge that spans the moat 
and is flanked by towers of most portentous 
strength ? 

At once, almost instinctively, comes a feeling 
that some shelter must be found for protection 
against the flights of arrows, the rain of stones 
and of boiling oil that guard this tremendous gate. 
It is another world. If it is a dream, it is so real 
that its impression is more powerful than that of 
actual life. If it is not a dream, it seems as if it 
must be, because it is so unlike anything that wak- 
ing eyes are accustomed to look upon. 

This walled town of Carcassonne is built upon 
a hill-top, and its fortifications follow the lines of 
the precipices and sloping banks that form the hill. 
It is like one of Dord's drawings. With black 
clouds behind its towers and knights in armor rid- 
ing toward its gates, it would seem almost exactly 
like one of the illustrations of the "Idylls of the 
King." 

This sternly frowning fortress, grim and strong 
though it is, looks forth in every direction upon one 
of the loveliest landscapes in France. 

The Aude flows by the foot of the hill, spanned 



CARCASSONNE 65 

just below the castle by an ancient and most pic- 
turesque bridge with nine massive Romanesque 
arches. All around in the plain and on the hill- 
sides are vineyards and olive orchards. Far away 
on the one hand are the Black Mountains, and 
still farther away on the other are the snow-clad 
Pyrenees. 

But exquisite as the landscape is, it is better not 
to linger long in looking upon it. There are beauti- 
ful views elsewhere, but there is only one Carcassonne. 

This place is not only a fortress, but a city. It 
is easy to forget this in looking at the walls from 
the outside, because they seem like one gigantic 
fort intended to dominate all the land it overlooks. 
Within, however, there is to-day a city. In days 
gone by there were faubourgs outside the walls, 
and protected by them, which extended for a con- 
siderable distance all about the fortifications. These 
were, however, destroyed by several princes. Louis 
IX. destroyed part of them, because the inhabitants 
had helped Raymond de Trincavel in his siege of 
the place. The Black Prince burned up all he 
could of them because he could not take Carcassonne 
itself. The fact is that he did not attempt to take 
it. Not even this hero dared attack Carcassonne, 
which was thought to be and probably was impreg- 
nable by mediaeval methods of warfare. 



66 CAECASSONNE 

It is worth remembering that the fortress of Car- 
cassonne successfully resisted the ablest English sol- 
dier of his time, the conqueror of France. 

Though the faubourgs were destroyed, the city 
within was not, and it still remains very much as 
it used to be. Its streets are so narrow that there 
is barely room for a carriage to go through them. 
In many of them there is not room, and therefore 
carriages are very little used in " la vieille cite," as 
it is called. In the old time they went on horseback 
or on foot. 

In this ancient place are some of the most remark- 
able buildings in all France. By far the most re- 
markable is the cathedral, which is simply a gem of 
architecture. There are few churches that resemble 
it at all, because of its peculiar and wonderfully 
harmonious combination of widely different kinds 
of building. The nave is ancient Romanesque 
with columns alternately round and square — a rare 
combination indeed. The square columns have four 
semi-detached round columns, one on each side, which 
support the vaulting of the roof. The transepts 
and apse are Gothic of the most perfect style of the 
fourteenth century. The capitals of the columns 
are most exquisitely carved, and the many statues 
which adorn these columns, about midway in their 
height, are cut from the solid stone and not attached 



CAECASSONNE 67 

as is usually the case. They are wonderful works of 
art, full of the dignity and the intense devotional spirit 
so truly characteristic of the Gothic work of that time. 

Then there is the glory of the stained glass, 
magnificent in color and design. The two rose 
windows are hardly to be surpassed anj^-where, 
and the lofty windows about the apse and in the 
side chapels are also very beautiful. That familiar 
subject, " The Tree of Jesse," occupies one of these 
windows, but the treatment of it has none of that 
comical element which was so irresistible in the 
church at Beauvais. On the contrary, it is exqui- 
sitely beautiful. The abundant foliage of the tree 
is interwoven with the whole design, and the figures 
of the kings and prophets seem to be embowered 
among the green leaves. There is another window 
equally beautiful, of which the central pane of the 
design is the Crucifixion. But not even with such 
a subject does the artist permit his figures to inter- 
fere at all with his thought of color. 

The church, fascinating as it is, is not the 
most remarkable part of Carcassonne — neither is 
the chateau, which is also within the walls. One 
cannot linger to look at the ruins of the cloisters 
and the bishop's palace that once were here, because 
the tour of the ramparts is by far the most inter- 
esting sight in this place of marvels. 



68 CAECASSONNE 

To go around the ramparts of Carcassonne is not 
an easy thing to do. It means a walk of at least 
a mile, beside going up and down steep flights of 
stairs almost every other minute. There is also 
some of the excitement which comes from actual 
danger, for if the mistral is blowing as it was on 
the day when I went round the ramparts, it is 
not so easy to keep your footing on the narrow 
"courtines" that are just behind the crenellated 
wall. There is no railing, no protection at all, 
and if one should make a misstep the consequences 
would be serious enough. 

But even if there is a little danger about it when 
the mistral is at its full force, no one would wish to 
miss the tour of the ramparts of Carcassonne, because 
here, as perhaps nowhere else in the world, can me- 
diaeval warfare, and mediaeval life also, be studied 
and understood. 

There are at Carcassonne two distinct lines of 
defence — the outer " enceinte," as it is called, and 
the inner. Beyond the outer one was the moat, also 
a most important part of the defences of the fortress. 
These two walls, which surround the town at differ- 
ent heights, — the outer one being very much lower 
than the inner, — are surmounted by fifty-four towers 
of the most solid masonry, so disposed as to protect 
one another in the most perfect way known to the 



CARCASSONNE 69 

military science of those days. It is an object- 
lesson, and many who pride themselves on their 
knowledge of history could learn from this place 
in much the same way as a child learns in a kin- 
dergarten. It is one thing to read about sieges in 
mediseval times. It is quite another almost to see 
one carried on before your very eyes. 

At one point on the ramparts near the chateau, 
which is within the walls, can be seen another de- 
fence, the barbican, which is far down in the valley 
below, and connected with the walls by a fortified 
passage, which abruptly climbs the steep hill. The 
barbican itself, which was a very strong round tower, 
has disappeared, and a church has taken its place, 
but the whole disposition of it and its means of 
access to the fortress above can easily be discerned. 
It was in itself a place of great strength, and yet 
if it were taken hardly anything would be accom- 
plished toward the subjugation of Carcassonne. 

There was another barbican on the other side to 
defend the gate over there — but it is not possible 
to describe all the elaborate defences of this most 
extraordinary fortress without writing a scientific 
treatise upon it, as did the famous architect who 
restored these walls and towers, M. VioUet-le-Duc. 

Those who wish accurate and technical informa- 
tion about this old town must have recourse to his 



70 CAECASSONNB 

brochure, " La Cit^ Carcassonne," for they will find 
nowhere else such valuable information upon this 
fascinating though most intricate subject. 

But even those who have not studied deeply into 
these matters are perforce put into mediaeval times 
in making the tour of Carcassonne's walls. The 
towers by the gates have still the grooves in which 
the portcullises were worked up and down. By 
each of these grooves is an opening about a foot 
and a half wide in the second story of the 
tower and as long as the width of the portcullis 
itself, through which all manner of projectiles could 
be discharged upon the heads of the unfortunate 
soldiers attempting to assail the closed portcullis 
below. In these towers 'by the gates are places to 
store the great round stones that were hurled down, 
and immense fireplaces where the oil could be 
heated that was even more deadl}?- in effect than 
the huge stones when it was poured boiling hot 
from this height on the attacking force. 

There is one tower on the walls of Carcassonne 
whose heating arrangements had a very different 
purpose from that of boiling oil. This is the tower 
of the Inquisition — an enormous tower. In its 
upper story still exists the immense fireplace where 
the irons of torture were heated. Here the judges 
sat and interrogated those to whom the hot irons 



CARCASSONNE 71 

were applied. If they remained obdurate, there were 
several stories below where other means could be 
used to induce them to embrace the gentle faith of 
the inquisitor. Lowest of all there is a story which 
can now be reached only by a ladder — perhaps it 
was so then — and here is a post to which are 
attached chains. When this was discovered not 
very many years ago, human bones were found 
among the many links of these long chains which 
held the victim till he died. This tower is too ter- 
rible to linger in. It makes one shudder even to 
look at it, especially because it is not fully restored 
within, and its immense depth yawns far below like 
some terrible abyss into which human souls might be 
plunged. It is like a passage from Dante's "In- 
ferno." 

But there are other towers whose uses were not so 
horrible. There is the Tour du Moulin — a most 
majestic structure. In this the bread was prepared 
for the garrison. It had a windmill once that rose 
from its roof — hence its name — but this has disap- 
peared. Enough remains, however, to show how the 
food was prepared, and in what curious, half-open 
ovens the bread was baked. 

Water was, of course, essential in a beleaguered 
town, and there were several deep wells at Car- 
cassonne, one so deep that it is said the bottom has 



72 CAECASSONNE 

not been found; another quite deep enough is now 
partially filled up. 

Then there was the Tower of Justice. Did they 
have justice in those days ? The walls of this tower 
were formerly hung with tapestry, and the iron 
hooks still remain from which the tapestries de- 
pended. There is the private entrance for the 
judges, which must have been behind the tapestries, 
and a public entrance for every one else, that opens 
upon the ramparts. If the records of this court in 
the tower had been kept, what secrets they might 
have disclosed ! But they are lost. 

And then there is the Bishop's tower. He needed 
apparently to be fortified more than anybody else, 
for his tower is "on horseback" over the outer and 
inner lines of fortification, the only one that has so 
commanding a position. Clearly he did not put all his 
faith in the power of the spiritual arm, but required 
a most advantageous position for his men-at-arms. 
This tower would enable him to isolate his own pre- 
cinct from all the rest of the fortress, and make it a 
fort within a fort which would have to be separately 
attacked after all the rest had been taken. But he 
must not be blamed for this, because the lords of the 
chateau did the same thing. All else in Carcassonne 
might be taken and their castle still remain an almost 
unassailable stronghold. 



CARCASSONNE 73 

Truly it is a marvellous place. The imagination 
is tempted to run riot here, because what is actually 
seen hardly seems real, for the reason that it is so^ 
unaccustomed to our thought; and what is told 
hardly seems real either, because we understand so 
little about the gentle and gracious customs and 
habits of Simon de Montfort or inquisitors like those 
of the grewsome tower. 

Without some touch of enthusiasm, some play of 
fancy, it is not possible to get into the spirit of Car- 
cassonne. It has been described analytically by 
Henry James. It has been described scientifically by 
M. VioUet-le-Duc. The latter has done more than 
describe it. He has rebuilt it and made it possible 
to repeople it in thought. This he did not attempt 
to do, but many a writer, many a poet, will find in 
his work the scene for story, drama, or poem that has 
to do with days long past. 

The spirit of the place can hardly be better illus- 
trated to-day than by telling of the effect produced 
by seeing a regiment of French dragoons pass along 
beneath the walls. In this magnificent army of the 
French is power enough to destroy every wall and 
tower of Carcassonne in one day, and yet these dra- 
goons seem out of place. The ancient walls, the 
tremendous towers, look sternly upon them. They 
fear them not because they do not know them. 



74 CARCASSONNE 

In the days of their pride, knights came up these 
steep ascents, clad in bright armor, with waving 
plumes upon their helmets. Their squires and all 
their retinue followed, and lances were carried high 
and pennants fluttered in the breeze. 

There were heralds to bespeak the warders of the 
towers, and all was stately and impressive. If battle 
came it was a contest of man to man, of wall and 
tower against mine and ram and beleaguering 
trenches. If the drawbridge was let down and the 
double portcullises raised that the knights and their 
following might enter, then afterward came the tour- 
nament in the lists between the outer and the inner 
"enceinte," and the reward of martial prowess and 
of ladies' favors was to be won. 

To one who has yielded to the dream of Carcas- 
sonne, the presence of the dragoons seems like an 
impertinence, and yet, sad as the waking from that 
dream is, the thought that these once impregnable 
walls and towers are but as card houses before the 
power jof the armies of to-day is even more sad because 
it means the weakness of what once was strong. 



CHAPTER IX 

AIGTJES-MORTES 

Travelling in the south of France is not always 
a pleasant thing, especially in the month of March 
when the mistral is at its worst. Perhaps it is be-- 
cause of the discomforts that must be endured here 
that so little seems to be known among us about 
places that are not only most interesting in them- 
selves, but simply brimming over with so many sug- 
gestions about times past that it is difficult to tell 
which to choose and lay special emphasis upon, where 
all is so full of interest to any one who cares to study 
French history. 

Aigues-Mortes is about an hour and a half by rail 
from Nimes ; but this does not mean by an express 
train. On the contrary, there are stops every five 
minutes, and really the laziness of the people seems 
to have penetrated the locomotive. The country is 
flat and uninteresting, and as one nears Aigues-Mortes 
it becomes worse than uninteresting. Here it is des- 
olate and repellant. Immense salt marshes stretch 

76 



76 AIGUES-MORTES 

far away on either hand, and there are stagnant 
waters, most unpleasantly suggestive of malaria. 

Nevertheless, the natives seem to think that one 
ought to have a good appetite, for when I asked for 
some sandwiches for luncheon they gave me a very 
remarkable combination of bread and ham : it must 
have been at least three inches thick. A giant's 
mouth could scarcely compass it, and even the giant 
with a digestion proportionate to his size would be 
sorry if he had succeeded in the attempt, because of 
the heaviness of the bread and the toughness of the 
ham. Nevertheless, it was that or nothing, and, di- 
viding our sandwiches into various parts, we did as 
well as we could. 

I was glad afterward that we struggled with the 
sandwiches, for eating or drinking at Aigues-Mortes 
is not so agreeable as it might be. The town is so 
dirty that one hesitates before touching anything in 
it. It is full of malaria. The stagnant waters are 
the cause of this. The people are so yellow that it 
seems as if they were all afflicted with jaundice. 

Fortunately, it is not necessary to stay here over 
night. One can leave Nimes in the morning and 
return in time for dinner, after seeing all that is 
really of great interest in the place. What is to be 
seen, however, is of such importance that all discom- 
forts are soon forgotten. 



AIGUES-MOETES 77 

The historical interest centres about Louis IX., — 
St. Louis, — though later there is much in the history 
of the place that is well worth knowing. It was 
from here that Louis IX. embarked twice. In 1248 
he went hence with a great army and eight hundred 
galleys to Egypt. He took his queen. Marguerite, 
with him. In that expedition he was successful ; but 
in 1270 he embarked again from Aigues-Mortes to 
attack the infidels at Tunis. This was fatal to him. 
In less than a month after he started he was dead. 

It is hard to see how Louis IX. could have got 
his army to the sea from this place, because it is no 
port at all, but simply surrounded by marshes. There 
is a story that he made a canal which gave entrance 
to a bay quite a distance away. The canal does not 
exist now, but possibly it once was there. At all 
events, it is certain that the king did embark here, 
and the Porte de la Marine is shown as the place 
where his soldiers entered the ships. 

Coming to quite a different period of history, it 
is also certain that Francis I. of France, and 
Charles V. of Spain met here. The house where 
they met is still pointed out as one of the prin- 
cipal sights of the place. It is not far from 
Louis IX.'s Porte de la Marine, and is on the 
" Boulevard Frangois Premier." Observe the pride 
of the French. Here is a boulevard in a town 



78 AIGUES-MORTES 

wtiicli is not big enough to have a street, and 
really has not any worthy of the name. 

But all this is merely a preface to Aigues-Mortes. 
The interest of the place to-day comes from what it 
is, and the wonder of it comes from the fact that 
it still is what it was. After Carcassonne it would 
hardly seem possible that another walled town 
would be interesting, and yet it is true that Aigues- 
Mortes is even more interesting than Carcassonne in 
some ways, for the simple reason that it is more 
perfectly preserved. There is much restoration at 
Carcassonne — there is hardly any at Aigues-Mortes. 
This walled town of Louis IX. and Philip the Bold 
remains almost exactly as they left it. The force of 
the mistral has had some influence upon it ; for there 
are many places where this terrible wind seems to 
have literally dug into the stones, but it could not 
penetrate far enough to materially impair their 
solidity and strength. 

The sieges it underwent seem to have had little 
effect upon it, although the face of one tower is 
full of small holes made by the projectiles of the 
Burgundians, who had taken the town by storming 
a gate, but were utterly foiled in their efforts to 
take the ramparts and towers. These little holes 
on the face of the massive stones show how ludi- 
crously impotent the force of attacking weapons 



AIGUES-MORTES 79 

was in those days against such walls as these. 
They had little more effect than a child's pop- 
gun. 

Aigues-Mortes to-day is, as it used to be, a 
mediaeval city surrounded by lofty walls with cre- 
nellated ramparts, from which rise fifteen massive 
towers, and through which penetrate nine strongly 
fortified gates. There is not here, as at Carcassonne, 
a double line of ramparts, nor has the place the 
advantage of a high hill to assist in its defence. It 
had, however, once an immense moat, which the 
surrounding waters made it easy to keep full ; but 
this has entirely disappeared, because the stagnant 
water in it so aggravated the malaria of the place, 
already bad enough, that it became necessary to 
fill it up. 

Of all the towers on these old walls the most 
interesting is the Tour de Constance. This is one 
of the most immense and impressive of all the 
mediaeval towers of Europe. It is far larger than 
any tower at Carcassonne. Its walls are at least 
fifteen feet thick, and its diameter inside these 
walls is sixty-five feet. The height is ninety feet, 
and above the flat space of its roof rises a small 
tower, used formerly as a lighthouse. This small 
tower is thirty-four feet in height, making the 
total height one hundred and twenty-four feet. 



80 AIGUES-MOflTES 

St. Louis made this upper tower and he used it 
as a beacon. There is an iron cap on its summit 
in which bonfires could be made to serve as 
signals. The iron of which this cap is made was 
taken by St. Louis from a tower built by Charle- 
magne on another part of the walls. It is, there- 
fore, more than one thousand years old and remains 
quite as good as ever it was. 

From the top of this beacon tower the whole 
of Aigues-Mortes can easily be studied. It lies at 
your feet. Every tower, every gate, the whole 
round of the ramparts, the low houses with their 
tiled roofs, the churches, the narrow streets — all 
is spread out before you as if it were drawn upon 
a map. It is a fascinating sight. It is not only 
what you see, but what you think. This is not 
the home of the few poor, squalid people that 
appear at rare intervals on the streets. It is the 
home of those who have long passed away but to 
the mind seem still to be here. 

It is hard to say which is the more interesting, — 
the view from the top of this tower, or what is to be 
seen within it. There are four stories, the lower one 
being a place of storage for provisions, to which ac- 
cess was had by openings in the floor of each of the 
stories above, that were provided, with ropes and 
buckets for bringing up the grain from below. There 



AIGUES-MORTES 81 

was also a deep well with similar appliances for pro- 
viding each, story with water. The architecture is 
very early Gothic, exceedingly pure and fine in style, 
and admirably preserved. The first and second 
stories seem like immense chapels of some vast 
Gothic cathedral. 

Each story has its means of defence, as though it 
were intended to be a separate fortress. The wind- 
ing stone stairway, that leads from one to the other, 
is most curiously defended at every point by angular 
projections of stone, behind which the soldiers could 
be sheltered while they shot at those attempting to 
ascend the stairs. 

But all this story of battle and bloodshed does 
not exhaust the interest of the Tour de Constance. 
There is beside all this a most pathetic history that 
must be told about it, for here in the upper one of 
the two great rooms were imprisoned for years many 
who refused to abjure their religion after the revo- 
cation of the Edict of Nantes. A number of these 
poor prisoners were women. Some have written their 
names upon the merciless stones, using, as it is said, 
their finger nails to make the letters. Sometimes 
they used their knitting-needles. Many and many 
a name can be read upon these walls — some of them 
of the noblest families of France. Here in this 
vaulted room with its impenetrable walls, these poor 



82 AIGUES-MORTES 

creatures, strong only in their love of the right, 
lingered year after year, and when they died, as 
most of them did, their bodies were probably thrown 
into the salt marshes, and they were forgotten. 

The eloquence of these speechless stones in this 
mediaeval fortress of France is marvellous. It is 
extraordinary how the stones do tell stories. Though 
Jacques, the melancholy, says there are sermons in 
them, he does not by any means exhaust the subject. 
Some stones can instruct as well as preach, and the 
stones of Aigues-Mortes are simply professors of 
history. 

For instance, there is a great stone in this upper 
room where these poor captives lingered that has its 
particular story to tell. It is like a millstone, and 
to-day it is lying on the floor of the room where so 
many life histories were ended so far as this world is 
concerned. What was it intended for ? It was used 
to grind the grain that was brought up in the buckets 
from the reservoir three stories below. Thus were 
the poor prisoners fed. There was a great open fire- 
place, and there, when the grain was ground, they 
made their cakes and baked them before the fire ; . 
and they quenched their thirst from the rain-water 
caught on the platform above, and falling thence to 
the cistern, whence it was lifted to them just as was 
the unground grain. 



AIGUES-MORTES 83 

The picture is so vivid, so intense in its reality, 
that it truly seems most strange not to see the cap- 
tives themselves here. Why should all their sur- 
roundings remain perfect in every detail, and all the 
human life be gone that once filled the place ? 

There is still another side to the picture of Aigues- 
Mortes. Why has the human life gone out of the 
streets as well as the tower ? There was a time when 
these were crowded with knights in armor, and on 
every shield was a cross. There were crosses on the 
banners — there were crosses everywhere, and in the 
name of that sacred symbol the knights went hence 
on the last of the crusades. It was a daring — a most 
hazardous deed. They must brave the storms of the 
Mediterranean, fearfully severe at times, and they 
must meet the Saracens, an enemy by no means to be 
despised. The knights are gone, and few now walk 
the streets they once thronged. 

When St. Louis directed his hosts toward the ships 
that were to take them through the canal to the sea, 
I hope he did not look as he looks to-day in the 
statue of him made by Pradier. This is in the princi- 
pal, in fact, the only square of Aigues-Mortes. It is 
of bronze and is heroic in size. The statue is quite 
unworthy of so noble a subject. It would be easy to 
ridicule it, but this is not well, for it had a serious 
intention, and the people of Aigues-Mortes are ex- 



84 AIGUES-MOETES 

tremely proud of it. There are many photographs 
of it and many, too, of the walls and towers, but the 
photograph cannot give the real picture of Aigues- 
Mortes. 

History must paint that picture. It was the scene 
of the embarkation. The churches were full of those 
who came to the mass, and left their offerings that 
prayers might be said for their souls if they died. 
When the religious rites were finished, all went to 
the great Porte de la Marine and men and horses 
were put upon the ships to start upon their perilous, 
though glorious, voyage. Each face is lighted by 
religious and martial enthusiasm. The good king 
turns to bless his land, which he was never to see 
again. The walls of Aigues-Mortes fade in the 
distance. 

When St. Louis with all his army has left the 
place because inspired by faith and religious fervor, 
it would be well for us to leave it too. It is better 
to go away from such a fortress with a thought of 
the highest that was in the spirit of it, and to forget 
if possible what was cruel and barbarous. 



CHAPTER X 

CUSTODIANS OF FRENCH CHURCHES AND MONU- 
MENTS 

The custodians of the French churches and monu- 
ments are very interesting people. I have often 
wished I could have had more time to talk with them, 
and find out how they came to be where they are, 
and how they learned what they know about their 
buildings. 

There is an old man at St, Ouen whose face 
should be painted by some tenderly sympathetic 
artist. There is an expression in it which seems to 
come in some way from the very church itself. There 
is the same placidity, the same nobility of line, and 
there is the same kind of love that those who made 
the windows must have felt. This custodian is not 
the " Swiss " to whom I have before referred. This 
one is too old to mount the stairs and only shows to 
visitors the lower part of the church. 

Taking visitors about St. Ouen is not a task to 
him. Although he does it many times a day, he 
loves it more each time. 

85 



86 CUSTODIANS OF FRENCH CHURCHES 

" Now, gentlemen and ladies, will you be kind 
enough to step here for just one moment ? If you 
love Gothic architecture, I think I can show you 
the most beautiful Gothic view in the world. No 
— not there — a little farther this way, if you 
please. I want you to see the columns with all 
their lines and forms, and at the same time the 
stained glass. There! That's right! There's where 
Mr. Ruskin used to stand. Did you ever see any- 
thing so beautiful as that ? I have ' been in this 
church for more than thitty years, and I find new 
beauties in it every day. Have you seen the reflec- 
tion in the vessel that contains the holy water? 
No ! Well, then, you must see it, because it will give 
you a better idea of the lines of the church than any- 
thing else. Have you been above to go about the 
clerestory under the arches just by the painted win- 
dows? Oh! you must certainly go there. You 
cannot understand the church at all unless you see 
it from that point, and it is necessary to know all 
about St. Ouen, because if you do not you will miss 
one of the very loveliest things in the world. I 
wish I could go up with you, but I am too old. 
My brother here will do that. I will stay here and 
wait to hear what you think. I love to wait in the 
church. Please tell me whether you think it is 
beautiful." 



AND MONUMENTS 87 

And so the old man waited as he doubtless waited 
every day for other visitors. I hope that many give 
to his dearly loved church that enthusiastic praise 
which delights him. Praise of St. Ouen is to him 
like food and drink. He lifts up his head when he 
hears it, and he walks proudly. He points again to 
the columns and the windows. He also forgets his 
fee, — at least he does not ask for it. When it is 
given without his asking, he takes it, and looks 
pleased, but immediately begins again his talk about 
the church. He hopes you will stay just a little 
longer. " There is one beautiful point of view on 
the other side. You have not seen that yet." 

This custodian of St. Ouen was one of the most 
benignant-looking men I ever saw, and in his lan- 
guage he was one of the most enthusiastic. He 
surely must have been an intelligent Christian 
gentleman. 

There was a custodian at Falaise who interested 
me greatly. He did not seem so much in love 
with his subject as was the one at St. Ouen, or 
at Aigues-Mortes. However, seeing my interest in 
the place, he began to warm up a little after a 
while. He was quite an old man — between sixty 
and seventy, I should think, and I began to talk 
to him about his life, because I thought he had a 
peculiar history. He looked like a disappointed 



88 CUSTODIANS OF FRENCH CHURCHES 

man. There was something almost like a tragedy- 
written on his face. 

" How long have you been here ? " I said. 

" Oh ! not very long," was the reply. 

" Well, what did you do before you came here ? " 

"Ah! Monsieur, I was at Mont St. Michel." 

This then was the tragedy — here was the dis- 
appointment of a lifetime, to be no longer at 
Mont St. Michel. 

"Monsieur, are you going to Mont St. Michel?" 

"Yes, I am going there." 

"You will find everything of beauty in the 
universe there. There is no other place like that. 
Alas ! that I am too old to mount its stairs and 
go about it as once I did," 

"But Falaise is very interesting. It is one of 
the finest Norman castles in France." 

"Oh! yes, it is interesting — certainly it is very 
fine — but there is only one Mont St. Michel." 

The custodian of Aigues-Mortes was, I think, 
the only lively person I saw in the place. The 
atmosphere is not wholesome, and most of the 
people (there are not many) look sickly and have 
a most dejected air. It seems to be an effort for 
them to move about at all. 

But this custodian loved the walls and towers 
of Aigues-Mortes just as that one at Carcassonne 
loved his, or the one at St. Ouen his church. 



AND MONUMENTS 89 

If I could write down all he said, I would have 
directly a book too bulky for publication. It was 
not possible to stop for a minute the flow of his 
— not conversation, but monologue. Every detail 
about the place, especially in the Tour de Con- 
stance, was given with a volubility peculiarly 
French, and an accuracy of knowledge quite 
French also. There was not a king or queen 
who had ever been at Aigues-Mortes with whom 
he was not acquainted, and as to the prisoners in 
the tower, I think they must all have been his 
personal friends. He knew how and where they 
ate and drank and slept, and the minutest details 
of their way of living. 

I had often wondered whether there was a college 
somewhere in France where these custodians were 
educated, and whether they had to be graduated 
and receive their diplomas before they could get a 
position in one of the historical monuments. In 
talking with one of the custodians at Fontainebleau, 
I found that such was not the case. The custodians 
study the history of a building from the archives kept 
in it or in the library of the town. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE TEMPLAR CHUECH OF ST. JEAN DE LUZ 

Far up among the Pyrenees in a green valley 
walled in by high cliffs and towering snow-clad 
mountains, nestles the little town of St. Sauveur. 
The magnificent scenery about it is its greatest 
charm, but often this cannot be seen on account of 
the low-hanging rain-clouds. There are, however, 
other things that can be seen here even if it does 
rain. Of these the most interesting is the Church 
of the Templars at Luz. The walk from St. Sauveur 
to Luz is not a long one, — only about a mile, — but 
it is so very lovely that one wishes it were a great 
deal longer. 

At first it seems strange that these religious war- 
riors who had risked life itself in the effort to con- 
quer and retain Jerusalem, and had succeeded in 
their attempt even to the point of holding their con- 
quest for a while, should have built this little church 
in a Pyrenean valley. The reason, however, is not 
hard to find. When they could no longer hold the 

90 



THE TEMPLAR CHURCH OF ST. JEAN DE LUZ 91 

Holy Land, they had to come back to defend their own 
country against the Saracens who had now, in their 
turn, become invaders. Luz is near the Spanish 
frontier, and commands a pass leading into Spain. 
Therefore, the Templars built their fortress-church 
here, and, for the same reason, long afterwards it was 
used as a defence against the Spaniards. 

No other church of the Knights Templar that I 
have ever seen is so well preserved as this. It is 
thought by some writers to be almost unique. 

Its history is bewildering because it was used for 
so many different purposes in the centuries since 
it was founded, but its architecture is no less bewil- 
dering. Here are combined two characteristic quali- 
ties of the very early Romanesque, — the military use 
of it, and the way it was used in churches. 

There are ramparts about this church, distant from 
it about forty feet. In one part of the space between 
the two was the cemetery where the Knights Tem- 
plar were buried, and their bones are still there. I 
have never seen so many human bones together in 
any other place unless it be the church of the Capu- 
chins at Rome. It is hard to help stumbling over 
them in walking about between the church and the 

ramparts. 

" Their bones are dust, 
Their good swords, rust, 
Theu' souls are with the saints, we trust." 



92 THE TEMPLAE CHUECH OF ST. JEAN DE LUZ 

To an architect the chief interest of the building 
would be in its principal portal, for this is one of the 
most remarkable examples I have ever seen of the 
earliest Romanesque. It dates from the tenth cen- 
tury, I think, at least a part of it does. Some of the 
wall of the church near by it has been restored. It 
somewhat resembles the portal of Morlaas church, 
but has not the very curious figures that make that 
so interesting. There are six concentric arches, 
recessed one behind the other, giving a very massive 
and imposing character to the entrance, although it 
is not really very large. A bas-relief of Christ and 
the four evangelists directly over the low door, and 
under the lowest arch, is a most curious specimen of 
that rude sculpture which the earliest Romanesque 
builders were fond of using wherever they could find 
a place to put it in. All the decorations of the 
arches are most unusual. In one the pattern is an 
arabesque distinctly Moorish in character. Per- 
haps the Templars found this in their adventur- 
ous journeys to the far east, or they may have bor- 
rowed it from Spain. The capitals of the columns 
that support each arch are also curious. They differ 
in their carved ornamentation. All are somewhat crude 
in execution, but whatever their faults may be they 
have a certain dignity and expressiveness quite worthy 
of their position at the entrance of the sacred building. 



THE TEMPLAR CHTJECH OF ST. JEAN DE LUZ 93 

This interesting portal is very different from that 
by which the poor " Cagots " were allowed to enter 
to reach a separate chapel reserved for their use. 
That was a low door in the ramparts through which 
they must have crawled on hands and knees and be- 
yond it a very small door by which they could reach 
their chapel. It would be interesting to trace the 
history of these " Cagots." There are many tra- 
ditions about them. Some say they embraced the 
Arian heresy; others that they were a separate 
race of people descended perhaps from the Moors, 
perhaps from the lost tribes of Israel. Certain it is 
that they were treated very much as lepers are. No 
one would have anything to do with them, and their 
very name expresses contempt and abhorrence. 

It was an act of unusual tolerance in those days to 
allow these proscribed people to worship so near the 
faithful, but it does seem strange that those who 
wished to worship the same God in a Christian church 
should be separated by such impassable barriers from 
the other worshippers. 

In the principal church there is another kind of 
separation in the worship ; that is, the men have their 
place in the upper part of the building and the women 
below. The larger part of the nave has two stories, 
both open toward the altar. The women worshipped 
on the stone floor of the church below; the men in the 



94 THE TEMPLAR CHtJRCH OF ST. JEAN BE LtJZ 

wooden gallery attached to the great columns that 
support the roof at a point about midway in the height 
of the nave itself. It was a most effectual separation 
truly ; for neither could see the other, and to hear 
a word whispered or even spoken would be difficult, 
perhaps impossible. It is a wonder that neither the 
Puritans nor the Quakers ever thought of such an 
arrangement. Perhaps it may be because the history 
of the Templars shows that not even such strict 
regulations as these were always successful in attain- 
ing their object. 

It would not be possible to describe all the curious 
things in this most remarkable church, — it would 
need a book to do that; but the museum must not 
be omitted. It is a very small room indeed, reached 
by a narrow flight of steps, and was probably con- 
nected at one time with the .church. Possibly it may 
have been the abode of the Prior-Commander of the 
Templar Knights. Small as it is, it contains more 
relics of the Templars than any other place I ever 
saw. There are bits for their war-horses of such size 
and cruel form that it is no wonder these famous 
horsemen could control their steeds as they pleased. 
The only wonder is they did not break their jaws with 
a leverage of nearly a foot on a curb of heavy, closely 
joined steel rings. Their spurs, of which there are 
several here, are not so formidable, although quite 



THE TEMPLAR CHUUCH OF ST. JEAN DE LUZ 95 

strong enough. Their swords and lances are here, 
and the pikes and small arms of their attendants. 
Then there are many curious things which they must 
have brought back with them from the East ; among 
them an alabaster image of the Virgin and Child, 
which is quite archaic in style, and must be very 
ancient. There is a picture of the Trinity, which is 
the most curious representation on canvas of that 
most difficult subject to paint successfully that I have 
ever seen or heard of. At the top of the picture are 
three foreheads, three noses, three mouths, three 
chins, four cheeks and four eyes, joined together in 
one monstrous head, which is not attached to a body 
but placed above a triangle on the sides of which are 
written "Filius non est — Pater non est — Spiritus 
non est," all the uncompleted sentences being led by 
white lines to the word " Deus " in the centre. This 
word is supposed to be the heart of the body, of which 
the combination of noses, chins, cheeks, and eyes is 
the head. Such a picture is almost unique. It 
would be the most prized gem of many a collector of 
ancient works of art — but it is clear up here among 
the Pyrenees, and money cannot get it away because 
this Templar church is a French "historical monu- 
ment" and nothing in it is for sale on any terms. 
High prices have often been offered for many things 
in this little room, but they have always been refused. 



96 THE TEMPLAE CHURCH OF ST. JEAN DE LUZ 

If one wishes to come close to the very life and 
spirit of the Templar monks, he must go to Luz. It 
is easy to read about them, but here one can see them 
just as he can a siege at Carcassonne. 



CHAPTER XII 

POITIERS 

Poitiers is nearly a city of churches. The battle- 
field is not far away, but there is little of interest to 
see there now. These churches are so remarkable, 
that the ecclesiastical architecture of France in its 
historical development can only be partially under- 
stood without studying them. The most noted of 
the churches are the " Temple de St. Jean," the 
church of " Notre Dame de Poitiers," and the cathe- 
dral. I name them in the order of age. The first is 
thought by some who have studied deeply into these 
subjects, to be the oldest Christian church in France. 
The date of its foundation is not accurately known. 
Some say the sixth or seventh century ; others claim 
that parts of it are as old as the third or fourth. 

If any one knows, it must be the learned Belgian, 
Professor Delaroche whom I met there, hard at work, 
as he has been for the last five years, writing a his- 
tory of it. If a man who has achieved such a success 
that he is now a member of twenty-nine societies of 
H 97 



98 POITIERS 

learning in Europe, finds it worth his while to give 
so large a part of his life to this one building, it 
must indeed be remarkable* 

He fixes a much earlier date than the sixth cen- 
tury for its foundation, and believes that it was 
begun not later than the fourth. This church was 
originally a baptistery. The font, large and deep 
enough for immersion, still remains, and also the 
pipes to bring the water in, and to carry it off. The 
architecture and the masonry show something of the 
Roman manner, and something of the Visigothic. 
There is little beauty about it. It is small, even 
with the additions of porch and apse which were 
made to convert the baptistery into a church. There 
are no columns and aisles and painted windows to 
make it charming to the eye — but it is most interest- 
ing to stand within what may have been the first 
Christian church in France. 

The venerable temple is now a museum, filled with 
most curious carvings and fragments of buildings' 
found in the neighborhood, and there are also several 
sarcophagi of the Merovingian period, which were 
discovered near by not many years ago. 

The church of Notre Dame de Poitiers is perfectly 
fascinating. The Romanesque fagade is carved with 
sculpture from base to tower top. The effect is in- 
describably rich. Surely Haig's attention has not 










^H 



0. k;' 






" ~ W H 




POITIERS 99 

been called to this marvel of florid Romanesque or he 
would have etched it long ago. It is one of the few 
profusely sculptured fagades in France which retain 
nearly all the figures uninjured except by the touch 
of time. Apostles, martyrs, kings, and prophets, 
Adam and Eve, and all the patriarchs, many a Bible 
story, many from lives of saints, are sculptured here 
with most delightful confusion and irrelevance of 
subject, but with most perfect and delicious artistic 
harmony of line and form. There is a porch at the 
side, too, whose rounded Roman arch is nearly as 
richly sculptured. 

There are two circular turrets that flank the gable 
of the fagade, and these are as picturesque as any- 
thing else in the beautiful old building. 

The whole of it is wondrously mellowed by long 
exposure to sun, and rain, and wind. There is a 
glow about it like that of a very old picture. The 
outlines of the innumerable figures are softened. 
Not one angle remains. 

This ancient church, with all its magnificent wealth 
of ornament, stands modestly in the market-place, 
and the booths of the peasants are about it. The 
common people come and go with their fruits and 
flowers and vegetables, and there are busy noisy little 
carts and quaint old vehicles that seem nearly as 
ancient as the church itself. 



100 POITIBES 

Within they have tried to make the old church 
vain by covering her arches and vaulted roofs with 
hideous, glaring, modern painting, supposed to be a 
restoration, but in reality a murder of all the interior 
beauty. If it had been let alone, it would have been 
charming. As it is, after a single glance one seeks 
the door, and leaves it with a shudder. 

The cathedral of St. Pierre, founded by Henry II. 
of England, is quite as remarkable as Notre Dame 
de Poitiers, though in a very different way. Here 
the interior is the chief charm. It is one of the 
noblest specimens of Poitevine architecture in 
existence. The simplicity, harmony, grace, and 
strength of its lines and construction are admirable 
in the highest degree. This peculiar style combines 
the round arch of the Romanesque with the pointed 
of the Gothic in a most peculiar and beautiful way. 
No dissonance is perceived between them. On the 
contrary, one melts into the other with some curious 
sympathy of grace. There are other most inter- 
esting churches in Poitiers, especially St. Radegonde, 
and there are many quaint buildings with richly 
carved facades. Perhaps the most remarkable of 
these is the house of Diane de Poitiers, where she 
lived long with her husband, Louis de Br^z^, Grand 
Seneschal of Normandy, before she went to the 
French court and captivated Henry II. 



POITIERS 101 

The battle-field of Poitiers is naturally interesting 
to all English-speaking people, but it is difficult to 
locate it exactly now. The French have not been 
careful to preserve the monuments of their most 
disastrous defeat. Moreover, a railroad has trav- 
ersed the field where the French king was taken and 
the Black Prince destroyed the flower of the French 
chivalr3^ The configuration of the country is not, 
however, greatly changed, and it is still possible to 
see what an advantage the English soldier had in 
his admirably chosen position, while the French had 
to advance up a slope with the sun in their eyes. 
But all this is a matter of history. I only wished in 
this chapter to emphasize the beauty of the churches 
of Poitiers, for it seems that but few Americans come 
to the lovely old town. 



CHAPTER XIII 

TWO ANCIENT BEAENAIS CHUECHES 

The cathedral of Lescar — for it was a cathedral 
once — is not far from Pau. In about three-quarters 
of an hour one can drive there. The place is hardly- 
less interesting historically than Pau itself, for Les- 
car was once the seat of government of the B^ar- 
nais region which afterward was merged in the king- 
dom of Navarre. 

It is upon the crest of one of those low hills about 
Pau which are wonderful because of the views they 
command of the fertile valley, the " coteaux " with 
their trees and vines, and the snow-clad Pyrenees 
rising beyond. 

There was a castle at Lescar which long antedated 
the chateau at Pau. Gaston Phoebus was not born 
when this castle was built, nor was many a prince of 
his line before him. There is very little left of it 
now, only a ruined tower, a most picturesque arched 
gateway, and a bit of wall here and there. What is 
left artists would love to paint, but in the church 

102 



TWO ANCIENT BBAENATS CHUECHES 103 

itself architects would delight more than painters, 
because here is one of the few remaining specimens 
of the very old Norman architecture. According to 
proper definition, it is not Norman at all. Some of 
those who describe it call it Romanesque, but it is 
not exactly that either. I call it Norman because 
we are more accustomed to associate with that word 
than any other, heavy, round arches, and massive 
columns and a simple ornament about the capitals 
of the columns not in the least like the carvings 
of the Gothic architects. 

The fa§ade of this church might well have excited 
the interest even of a Richardson ; for some of his 
arched doorways are made upon nearly the same 
lines as this one, but he uses much more ornament. 
There is something most interesting about these 
deeply recessed openings into a church. In the 
mind of the builder it must have been clear that 
one should come gradually from the full light of 
day into the softened light of the sanctuary. He 
must also have felt that there should be a thought 
of humility in entering a place of worship, for the 
concentred arches become smaller and smaller as 
the entrance is reached. 

But the chief interest of the cathedral of Lescar is 
not in this fagade, simple and yet imposing as it is. 
The columns inside are the most remarkable things 



104 TWO ANCIENT BEARNAIS CHURCHES 

about the churcli, and these are interesting in many- 
ways. Their bases are great round masses of stone, 
far larger than the columns that surmount them — so 
much larger that they seem rather unnecessary for 
the support of the somewhat low roof which they 
uphold. Possibly they were stronger than what was 
really needed, but the architect of those days pre- 
ferred stability to anything else. He wished his 
building to stand for all time if possible. This 
building has stood for more than a thousand years, 
and even now it shows few signs of old age. 

This architecture is so massive in form, so stern 
in line, that it seems hardly possible it could have 
been splendidly decorated, and yet such is the fact. 
At least all of the apse in this church was covered 
with frescoes. Nor were they bad pictures either, 
when one thinks how long ago they were painted. 
There is something in the spirit of them strongly 
suggestive of Giotto. Nobody knows who painted 
them, but it is not impossible that some Italian 
artist of the early days of Italian art had a hand 
in it; for they may have been painted much later 
than the time of the building of the church. 

There are wonderful wood-carvings about the 
altar stalls here, quaint in style but very direct 
and powerful in expression. But to the student 
the most interesting carvings in the church would 



TWO ANCIEITT BEAENAIS CHURCHES 105 

be tliose about the capitals of the columns. I do 
not know the history of them, but it is certain that 
they are truly in the very spirit of that early archi- 
tecture of which so few specimens remain. The 
familiar " clog's tooth " and " saw-edge " way of 
ornamenting is to be seen all through this church, 
but I think I have never seen dragons or devils 
used with such immense effect in an ornamental 
way. 

On several columns there are double dragons — 
twins they might be, like the Siamese — united at 
only one point, but actuated by a common desire of 
devouring sinners. Each mouth has a bad man's 
head in it, and each tail is coiled about a bad 
man's legs. I only know they are bad because 
otherwise they would not have been thus treated. 
The expressions of their faces do not indicate 
suffering or alarm — rather idiocy or stupefaction. 
This is very amusing, but the most interesting 
thing to a student of art is that these extraordinary 
figures are really decorative and made to harmonize 
in line and form with the columns whose capitals 
they decorate. I should have expected this in 
Gothic, but not in early Romanesque. For this 
reason among others I think this church one of 
the most remarkable examples of that rare style 
to be found anywhere. 



106 TWO ANCIENT BBARNAIS CHURCHES 

This study of the Lescar cathedral leads naturally 
to a thought of the other one at Morlaas, and not 
only because of some relation between the architect- 
ure of the two, but also on account of a certain 
resemblance between them in their history. The 
cathedral of Lescar was built in expiation for a 
murder. The church at Morlaas also owes its ex- 
istence to what the priests called a crime, but it was 
one of quite a different kind. Centulle was the 
criminal, and yet he seems to have been one of the 
very best kings Beam ever had. He helped the poor, 
lightened the taxes, improved the roads, modified the 
severity of the laws, and promoted justice as far as 
he could ; but, unfortunately, he fell in love with 
Gisla, who was too nearly related to him for mar- 
riage to be possible under the canons of the Roman 
Church. He married her, nevertheless, and from their 
union came that Gaston whose descendants were to 
be such illustrious princes at Pau, and one of whom, 
Gaston Phoebus, was to found the chateau there. 

Pope Gregory VII. heard of this marriage, and 
wrote a letter to Centulle, telling him he must put 
away his wife, Gisla, and expiate his crime by devot- 
ing himself to the church. He did so, and because 
of that command of the Pope, the church at Morlaas 
was built, and most richly endowed. It is the story 
of the Abbaye aux Hommes and the Abbaye aux 



TWO ANCIENT BEARNAIS CHUiiCHES 107 

Dames over again, though William and Matilda do 
not seem to have obeyed the Pope's mandate in quite 
the same way as did CentuUe and Gisla. 

The story of Gisla's after life, v^hen her husband 
had been taken from her by the papal mandate, is 
one of the most interesting chapters in mediaeval 
history. This noble woman, whose love — whose 
all that made life sweet — had been torn from her, 
did not lose her faith or her courage. She resolved 
to found a retreat for gentlewomen who had deter- 
mined to give up the world ; not exactly a nunnery, 
but even stricter in its rules than those of the nuns. 
She built a building at Marcigny, in the region of 
the Loire. Here she dwelt herself, and others who 
had been afflicted in a similar way also dwelt there 
with her. Those who came there came to stay until 
death took them away, and they were never to go 
outside the walls until death called them. There 
came a fire in the town one day, and this retreat 
seemed doomed. Hugues, the venerable Archbishop 
of Lyons, was there, and he absolved the women 
from their vows and commanded them to come out. 
Gisla said it would be better to pray that the fire 
might be extinguished, and said it mattered little 
how those within the threatened walls met death, 
because they were there to await it. The arch- 
bishop then did pray that the flames might be stayed, 



108 TWO ANCIENT BEARNAIS CHURCHES 

and they were ; but not one of the noble women left 
those walls before death, if history tells the truth. 

This was Gisla's part of the sacrifice required by 
the Pope. Centulle married again, but he never 
ceased to care for the Church of the Holy Faith at 
Morlaas, which he founded because of his sin, and 
it became a very rich and most important church in 
those days. 

There is not very much left of the old part of the 
church of Morlaas now, but there is enough to show 
that it was and is one of the most remarkable exam- 
ples of very ancient Romanesque in all this region. 
The fa9ade is the most interesting part of the build- 
ing, because it shows exactly what were the entrances 
to churches in the early Romanesque time, and how 
they were related in style to the magnificent Gothic 
portals that followed them many years afterward. 
There are points of close resemblance most interest- 
ing to trace, and there are the widest differences. 

The great central arch of the Morlaas fa9ade and 
the arches on each side of it are altogether Roman- 
esque and very richly ornamented. Above the cen- 
tral arch the architecture is distinctly Gothic of a 
very early period. There is the pointed form, with 
pinnacles and gargoyles, and there is an unmistakable 
suggestion of the buttress construction, so character- 
istic of the Gothic, though not in its fully developed 
form. 




THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY FAITH AT MORLAAS 



TWO ANCIENT BEARNAIS CHXJUCHES 109 

A very curious thing about this upper part of the 
facade is the way the three bells are placed in it. In- 
stead of being in a belfry or tower they are in open 
niches in the wall itself. The clock is placed in the 
centre — one bell over it and one on each side. The 
effect is most peculiar. I do not remember seeing 
such an arrangement anywhere else. I was not able 
to find out just when this Gothic addition was made. 
Perhaps the date is not known, for a very old history 
of the church which I consulted says nothing of it. 

There is doubt also about the real meaning of the 
figures, which are arranged in concentric semicircles 
upon the arches that together form the great re- 
cessed doorway. In the old history I spoke of, writ- 
ten before the restorations were made, some meanings 
were suggested which apparently did not approve 
themselves to the architects who made the restora- 
tions, for they only followed the writer of the old 
history in part. In the tympana of the two smaller 
arches over the entrance are Herod directing the 
massacre of the Innocents, and the Flight into Egypt. 
Between them, above, is a figure of Christ giving the 
blessing of the Trinity with upraised right hand, the 
fii'st and second fingers being upright and the thumb 
crossing them in the conventional way for such a 
blessing. 

The spirit of all the ornamentation of this arch is 



110 TWO ANCIENT BEARNAIS CHURCHES 

undoubtedly religious, and I do not wish to criticise 
it in any irreverent spirit, but the effect is so irresis- 
tibly comical that no true description of it can be 
given that leaves out the funny side. The expres- 
sion of the w^ise man who mocks Herod would make 
the most melancholy of men laugh. It is a combina- 
tion of a leer, a sneer, and general hopeless idiocy. , 
Moreover, he stands on one leg, and twists the other 
leg about the one on which he stands. This twisted 
leg, if unwound, would reach I don't know how far 
beyond the limits of the bas-relief. It seems to have 
been modelled on some serpent of mighty proportions, 
suggestive, perhaps, of the one who tempted Eve in 
the garden ; for this would be quite in accord with 
the general spirit of the composition. The Flight into 
Egypt is nearly as funny, principally on account of 
the extraordinary construction of the donkey, whose 
legs are as much too short as the wise man's were too 
long. It is hard to understand the sculptor's lack of 
fidelity here at least, if donkeys were as numerous 
in this part of the world in his day as they are now, 
but the artist's poAver was not sufficient to reproduce 
accurately even what he saw about him every day. 
His aim may have been to conventionalize for the 
sake of properly ornamenting spaces that needed 
ornament, but faithfal reproduction was in any case 
out of his reach. 



TWO ANCIENT BEARNAIS CHUKCHES 111 

The funniest part of the whole conception is the 
figures which adorn the two principal arches. On 
the outer one, which is, of course, the larger, are 
thirty-four figures, and they are apparently all varia- 
tions on one theme. The only name I could tliink 
of, that was in the least appropriate, was " A Study 
in Stomach Aches." I did not know that the agonies 
of violent colic could be portrayed in so many differ- 
ent ways. Sometimes both hands are on the stomach; 
sometimes one is uplifted as though in protest against 
the pain; sometimes both uphold the bowed head. 
The legs are drawn up and contorted in all kinds of 
ways. I am quite at a loss to account for this ex- 
traordinary choice of subject. Perhaps there was a 
plague once at Morlaas and the stricken ones came to 
be relieved at the church. Perhaps they had taken too 
much of the wine of the country, whose extreme acid- 
ity would amply account for the most violent pains. 

At all events, the sufferers ought to be healed if 
the august people who adorn the arch just beneath 
them can do anything; for these are kings with 
crown and sceptre, and they are praying with all 
their might. It must be that these royal people are 
interceding vigorously for the tortured ones above 
them. Unless there is some such connection as this 
between the two arches, there is no coherence of 
subject at all, nor any possible explanation. 



112 TWO ANCIENT BEAENAIS CHUECHES 

These figures, comical as they are, are neverthe- 
less very decorative, and they suggest that style 
which afterward came to such magnificence in the 
glorious facade of Amiens cathedral. 

I think there may have been niches below for larger 
figures. At all events, blocks of stone unsupported by 
columns protrude so curiously from near the bases 
of the arches that they make it certain something 
must once have been below them, whether columns 
or figures in niches I cannot tell. 

The fagade is by far the most interesting part of 
the church. The interior does not compare with 
that of Lescar, for it is not Romanesque at all, ex- 
cept in the restored parts, but clearly Gothic of a 
very early half-formed style. Three of the old 
chapels have been restored in the Romanesque man- 
ner, and these are quite splendid in color, being 
decorated from floor to topmost arch with red and 
blue and gold. But, on the whole, the interior is not 
interesting. The Gothic has not been well united 
with its predecessor, and the result is somewhat con- 
fusing. 

What a pity that Centulle's church could not 
have been preserved as it was when he built it ! If 
it had been, we might have learned more about the 
early Romanesque of France here than from any 
other existing building that dates from that time. 



TWO ANCIENT BEARNAIS CHURCHES 113 

But even as it is it harmonizes in some curious way 
with the forms of the mountains that surround it, 
and as I rode home again down the hill of Morlaas, 
and along the valley of the Gave de Pau, and looked 
at the great peaks beyond the river there was in my 
thought a most singular mixture of the rounded 
forms of the mountains and the round arches that 
bend over the portal of Morlaas' church. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE CHATEAU OF HENRY OF NAVARRE 

The chateau in which Henry of Navarre was born 
is a very ancient building. It was begun in the 
tenth century. Unfortunately, but little remains of 
the original structure, although there is enough to 
indicate clearly the outlines of its construction. 

The man who first made this place a fortress- 
castle was Gaston de Foix — usually called Gaston 
Phoebus, because he adopted a blazing sun as the 
emblem for his coat of arms. No one knows exactly 
why he chose the sun for his emblem. It was cer- 
tainly an ambitious thing to do, because it naturally 
suggests that he thought he might outshine others. 
Some think the emblem was chosen because of the 
physical beauty of tbe man, which was certainly 
most remarkable ; but personal vanity would hardly 
carry him to such an extreme, however handsome 
he may have been. Others think it was because his 
success in war was so great that he was entitled to 
outshine any soldier of his day. It may be that he 

114 



THE CHItEAU of HENEY OF NAVARRE 115 

chose the sun for his emblem because it had so much 
to do with the beauty of his castle. 

The chS/teaux in the valley of the Loire, and by 
the banks of the Cher and the Indre, are surrounded 
by natural beauty of a very unusual kind, but there 
is no one of them — not even Chinon — that com- 
pares in loveliness of surrounding scenery with the 
chateau on the hill crest above the Gave de Pau, 
whose outlook is first across the river valley, then 
upon the "coteaux" that rise slowly, gently, one 
behind the other, and at last upon the full splendor 
of the snow-clad Pyrenees. Upon these " coteaux " 
are the vines of Jurangon, the oaks of the Pyrenees, 
— a foreground for the picture of snow-clad peaks 
behind them, seen against the blue sky of the south, 
that cannot be seen anywhere else. 

The chateau of Pau was already an old castle 
when Henry IV. was born there. It was a very 
stern castle then. There were five great towers. 
These were connected by buildings in which were 
the lodging and reception rooms, and the state 
apartments. It was almost triangular in shape, 
because it followed the natural formation of the hill 
on whase top it stands. There were formerly ram- 
parts around the castle, and a moat that was far 
below these. In the old days, when this place was 
really a fortress, it must have been far more pictu- 



116 THE CHATEAU OF HENEY OF NAVARRE 

resque even than it is to-day, for then the houses 
clustered about it, and the great church of St. Mar- 
tin was not far from the drawbridge that gave 
entrance close by the tower of Gaston Phcebus. 
The tower is still here, built of the bricks that were 
made on the banks of the Gave, and the stones that 
were found in its valley. Now most of the castle 
has been rebuilt in gray stone, but this harmonizes 
beautifully with the green trees all about. The 
moat has been filled up, but it has become one of 
the most charming of gardens, where the people 
walk and the children play. 

Jeanne d'Albret, the mother of Henry of Navarre, 
might have liked to see the people wandering in 
these gardens, and even in her ancient halls, for 
she loved the people more than any other princess 
of her time. She was quite unlike the women at 
the court of the French king. She had an intelli- 
gence superior to theirs, and a simplicity of mind 
and courage, both physical and mental, of which they 
knew little and cared less. Some say that she was 
poisoned because her virtue was a rebuke to those 
who were living licentious lives. 

When Henry IV. came into the world his mother 
sang the song of the B^arnaises, in which they ask 
to be the mother of a man. When her child was 
born, and his grandfather had taken him in his arms 



THE CHATEAU OP HENRY OF NAVARRE 117 

and in his way christened him with Jurangon wine, 
his education became at once her task. She treated 
him not as if he were a king, but more as the chil- 
dren of Bdarnais peasants are treated. 

The king's boyhood was spent among the moun- 
tains at Coarraze, where he was brought up as a 
real child of the people. Later he came back to 
the castle at Pau. He was a hardy peasant then in 
his strength and in his simple way of living, but he 
was already beginning to be a soldier. Later, in 
the gardens and parks of his castle he learned to 
love with all the ardor of the south. Gabrielle 
d'Estr^es could tell of this side of his character. 
He loved her deeply, and she might have been 
his queen if the same poison that may have killed 
his mother had not killed his lady-love also. 

He must have retained something of his simple 
habits, however, even in the great castle. It is 
said that one of his peasant friends came there 
once to visit him. This farmer of B^arn does 
not seem to have been frightened by the splendors 
about him. On the contrary, he was afraid his 
prince was about to starve. There is a custom 
in this country almost universally observed, that 
is, to hang the provisions for the winter on the 
rafters of the kitchen, which was also the dining- 
room. This custom is still the same as in the 



118 THE CHATEAU OF HENRY OF NAVARRE 

time of King Henry. Hams and sides of bacon, 
perhaps a boar's head, whatever vegetables could 
be thus kept, might be seen hanging from these 
rafters in the house of any well-to-do farmer in 
the time of Henry IV., and they can be seen 
there now. The king's peasant visitor was aston- 
ished because he did not see them hanging from 
the ceilings of the palace. He said, "Sieur, surely 
one will die of hunger here, because you have no 
provisions on the ceiling." I give the literal trans- 
lation, because it 'best expresses the intimate re- 
lation between the king and his subjects of Pau, 
who hardly knew he was a king in those earlier 
days, but thought of him as one of themselves, 
now a man of full stature but who was just the 
same person whose boyhood had been spent at 
Coarraze among the mountains, and who seemed 
there a peasant and a mountaineer as they were. 

Although there were no provisions hanging from 
the raftered ceilings of the castle of Pau, they 
were, and are, nevertheless, very beautiful, much 
more beautiful than those of the peasant's farm- 
house, though built upon nearly the same model. 
Many an English and American home has found 
the suggestion for its dining-room ceiling from the 
halls of Pau, not only the dining-room and the 
kitchen, but the other great rooms which are very 



THE CHATEATJ OF HENRY OF NAVAREE 119 

fine and must have been even more picturesque 
before tlie restoration of tliem in the time of 
Louis Pliilippe. 

The beds in this castle are as interesting as 
the raftered ceilings. That one which is said to 
have been the bed of Jeanne d'Albret herself, is 
superbly carved in ancient oak. Upon the side 
near the pillow is a recumbent figure that seems 
to be asleep, but, nevertheless, it is called the 
"guardian angel of the bed." There is something 
so curious about a guardian angel being asleep 
that I looked again and again to make sure that 
such was the truth. Alas ! it is indeed the fact, 
and yet Jeanne d'Albret seems to have been well 
taken care of by the higher powers. 

The most artistic beauties of the interior are not 
in the ceilings or the beds, but in the tapestries, 
which are simply superb. They are mostly Gobelin 
work, but there are some from Beauvais. It would 
take too much time to describe them all, for they 
fill the great halls and the smaller chambers too. 
They are nearly everywhere in this castle. Many 
of them are justly celebrated for their beauty of 
color and some for their interest in grouping and 
picturesque suggestion of some scene. That one 
that represents Henry IV.'s parting with Gabrielle 
d'Estrdes is one of the most striking. It is al- 



120 THE CHATEAU OF HENRY OF NAVAERE 

most like a fine oil painting and in its action 
it is extremely dramatic. 

Bernadotte, the king of Sweden, is closely asso- 
ciated with the chateau of Pan. He was born 
not far from it, and he has enriched it with many 
costly and beautiful things, most of them made of 
the marbles of Sweden, some of which are very 
fine in color. The king who became a Protestant 
that he might come to the throne of Sweden and 
the other who became a Roman Catholic that he 
might be king of France are brought close to- 
gether in this castle. 

The cradle of Henry of Navarre is in the chateau of 
Pau. It is a tortoise shell, and it was one of the great 
treasures of all the southern kingdom when Henry 
became king of France. There is a story about how 
it was saved at the time of the Revolution. A 
certain M. de Beauregard was afraid that this pre- 
cious relic would be destroyed by the soldiers and 
the mob, and he resolved to save it if he could, 
even at the peril of life itself. He took it from 
the castle to his own home, and substituted an- 
other tortoise shell for it in the castle. This one 
was destroyed by the revolutionists. When the 
fever of their wrath had subsided and there was 
again a monarchy in France, he put the king's 
cradle back in its place. The story may be true. 



THE CHATEAU OF HENRY OF NAVAREB 121 

At all events, the Ducliesse d'Angouleme believed it, 
for she embroidered the banners that are now 
about it. This work of the daughter of Louis 
XVI. and Marie Antoinette was supplemented by 
a gift from Louis XVIII. of a gold helmet sur- 
mounted by white plumes, meant to be as nearly 
as possible like the helmet of Navarre and the 
plumes that were to be the oriflamme of France 
on the day of Ivry. 

The chapter of history that was begun in the cha- 
teau where Henry IV. came into the world was a 
very strange one. The strong, proud mother exult- 
ing over the birth of her son, the grandfather, hardly 
less proud, christening him with the wine of his 
native land and declaring that he was to be a right 
noble king, and a true B^arnais, the babyhood days 
in the tortoise-shell cradle, the years of boyhood 
among the peasants at Coarraze, the early battles 
when this youth showed himself a better soldier than 
some of the oldest warriors of France, the grand 
battle of Ivry, the final conquest of Paris, — all these 
had their beginnings in this room at Pau. 

The spirit of Jeanne d'Albret is one of the noblest 
in French history. During her absence the castle 
was attacked by the Biscayans, under Terride ; when 
she returned the assailants were defeated. Strangest 
thought of all about this place, she pardoned those 



122 THE CHATEAU OF HENRY OF NAVARRE 

who had rebelled against her and would have killed 
her if they could. 

In spite of the influence of such a life as that of 
Jeanne d'Albret, Henry did not live a moral life. It 
must have shocked his mother to see him walking 
about the castle with one of his mistresses. She must 
have been shocked, too, when Marguerite came here, 
and the life of the court became even worse than be- 
fore. It seems strange that this strong noble woman 
should have been thus afflicted. It is her spirit even 
more than that of the hero of Ivry, the great king of 
France, that dwells in the castle at Pau. It is not 
quite the same as the inspiration of Chinon by Joan 
of Arc, but there is a most ennobling influence in it 
that comes from the thought of motherhood, the true 
woman who cared for her child and trained him so 
far as she could toward the development of his 
powers. With the thought of her it is possible to 
leave the chateau with all its magnificence within 
and without, and come into the glorious beauty of 
the valley and the mountains, feeling that she be- 
longed among them and that her presence in the 
castle has brought it into close sympathy with the 
snow-clad peaks that rise about its terraces. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE CHATEAU OF LANGEAIS 

At Chinon the interest is centralized about Joan 
of Arc and Charles VII. At Langeais Charles VIII. 
and Anne of Brittany fire those most closely asso- 
ciated with its history. It was here that they were 
married in the great hall which is now the salon 
of the chateau. It is not only the historical asso- 
ciations that make Langeais interesting; there is, 
beside, the beauty of the place itself and the charm 
of the drive to it from Tours. Langeais is not a 
long way from the city of St. Martin and Louis XI. 
The road follows the Loire, and there are pictures 
such as Daubigny might paint at every turn, but 
this greatest painter of the river scenery of France 
preferred the Seine. I wish he had painted the 
Tour de Cinq-Mars that is on the way from Tours 
to Langeais. This tower stands quite alone. It 
must have been once a part of a larger building, — 
a Roman structure, as some think. Its loneliness 
now is most significant. It seems to tell how Cinq- 

123 



124 THE CHATEAi: OF LANGEAIS 

Mars stood alone on the scaffold when his king 
had forsaken him and Richelieu had doomed him 
to die. It is a strange episode in history. Cinq- 
Mars was not only the king's favorite, but his 
power at court was so great that it was only next 
to that of the king himself. If he had been faith- 
ful, he might have been one of the heroes of France. 
He had courage enough, but he lacked judgment, 
and his head was not sufficiently strong to with- 
stand the influence of the flattery that the courtiers 
daily gave him. 

His life, short though it was, gives a marked 
contrast to the lives of those who lived near his 
tower. Following the road a little farther, the hills 
by the river-side become higher. There are cliffs 
of white stone. In caves in these cliffs were the 
homes of the people, while Cinq-Mars was a favor- 
ite at court. Cliff-dwellers they were then, and 
some of them are so now. Taine says that the 
people lived in caves in the time of the luxury 
and splendor of Louis XIV.'s court. On the banks 
of the Loire between Tours and Langeais it is easy 
to see that this is the truth. Although there are 
these sad associations with the landscape, there is 
also much beauty. The winding road by the river- 
side gives an ever-varjdng view of field and hill- 
slope, of orchards and vineyards — a smiling land 



THE CHATEAU OF LANGEAIS 126 

of plenty and content it seems. It was a land that 
Anne of Brittany loved. It was her home, and she 
thought it almost a kingdom in itself. She was very 
ambitious, and she even thought at one time of a 
marriage with the king of Spain. This did not 
come to pass, but she married two kings of France, 
— Charles VIII. and Louis XII. Even then her 
cup of joy was not full, for her children died and 
no heir to the throne of France came from her. 

Two great towers flank the entrance to Anne 
of Brittany's chateau of Langeais. They are round, 
with small openings here and there, and they have 
the curious, conical top so characteristic of the 
French architecture of that early time. The draw- 
bridge is still there that leads to the gateway, and 
even now it can be lifted up by the long iron chains 
that are attached to beams projecting from the wall 
just as it was in the olden time. When it was 
lifted it became a defence instead of a way of 
access, but there was still another defence a little 
behind it, — the portcullis in the second arch of the 
deep gateway. Even from the entrance it is easy 
to know that Langeais was meant to be a fortress 
as well as a home. The walls on the side where 
this entrance is emphasize this thought, for they 
are very high and in their lower part hardly pierced 
at all by windows. The architecture of Langeais 



126 THE CHATEAU OF LANGEAIS 

is in the very first period of the transition from 
the feudal stronghold to the luxurious chateau. 
For this reason it is most interesting and quite as 
well worth study as any chateau in Touraine, al- 
though there are others more beautiful. One of 
the truths of mediseval history is admirably exem- 
plified here in the same way as at Chinon and at 
Loches. The houses come as close as they can to 
the castle. They would even cross the moat if it 
were possible, for the nearer the people came to the 
home of a feudal lord, the surer they were of pro- 
tection in case some other lord attacked him and 
tried to ravage his domains. 

And yet when the drawbridge is passed and the 
court entered, the beauty of Langeais is so impres- 
sive that even Chenonceaux and Azay-le-Rideau 
hardly surpass it. 

Within there is no suggestion of the warlike aspect 
of the exterior. It seems to be a home, a lovely, 
most charming place to dwell in. In the inner 
court there are three towers. The tops of two of 
them do not rise far above the roof line, but the 
other one is a lofty tower, almost as if bells should 
be there as in cathedral towers to give a call to 
worship. The beauty of the windows is almost 
as remarkable as that of the towers. They are 
richly ornamented, and they blend most pleasingly 



THE CHATEAU OF LANGEAIS 127 

with the slope of the roof and its sky line, which 
here and there they break, not abruptly, but with 
the hope that it might not be monotonous because 
of uninterrupted length. Within the court of Lan- 
geais is a garden a little formal in arrangement, but 
the terrace by its side commands a glorious view. 

In the older times there was a great castle near 
where the chateau of Langeais now stands. It was 
situated upon the very top of the hill, considerably 
higher than the present castle. What is left of it — 
a few ruins of walls, a few statues more or less 
broken — is within the grounds of Langeais. The 
view from the hill crest where the old castle stood 
is as magnificent as that at Chinon. It is the same 
kind of scenery, — the majestic river, the purpled 
vineyards, the grace of the many-arched bridges 
spanning the river here and there from one horizon 
to th6 other, and catching with their many arches 
almost the very form and spirit of the river itself. 

The present owner of Langeais has restored it, 
and made it as nearly like the old building as he 
could. In this he has been successful, and it was 
not an easy thing to do, nor would many men wish 
to live in rooms of the thirteenth-century manner 
of domestic architecture. It is curious to think of 
children of our own day sleeping in beds that are 
as nearly as possible the same as Anne of Brittany 



128 THE CHATEAU OF LANGEAIS 

used herself and put her children to sleep in. The 
unhappy queen lost her children, but for a little 
while at Langeais the babies were in beds such as 
are there now. 

The hall in which Charles VIII. and Anne of 
Brittany were married is unaltered save by the addi- 
tion of exquisite carved furniture and rugs, superb 
in color, and soft and rich in texture. This is now 
the parlor of the mansion, and there are few more 
interesting salons in Europe, partly because of the 
beauty of it and partly because of its associations. 

On the battlements above this beautiful room is 
even now a picture of war in the mediaeval time, for 
all along their course about the castle are the loop- 
holes for the archers and the narrow openings for the 
pouring down of the boiling oil that was so potent a 
weapon in the warfare of those days. 

After seeing all this, we went out from the gate 
of the tower-flanked portal by the drawbridge ; and it 
seemed like stepping almost in a moment from the 
days of old to our own time. 

We followed the winding river back toward 
Tours; and as the towers of the town began to rise 
in the distance above the line of Tours' great bridge, 
the sun set in a glory of vivid gold, and made the 
river as golden as the sky. Each arch of the bridge 
had its reflection in the softly lighted water. Softer 



THE CHATEAU OF LANGEAIS 129 

and softer became the tones as darkness began to 
fall. Farther and farther away seemed the days of 
Anne and of Charles, which had come again to life 
for us for the little time we were at Langeais. 

It was only one day, but we dreamed and we 
wondered, as we passed over the majestic bridge, in 
what age of the world we were living. 



CHAPTER XVI 

CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-E,IDEAU 

The chateaux of Chenonceaux and Azay-le-Rideau 
are closely associated in the style of their archi- 
tecture. It is a peculiar style, not known by any dis- 
tinctive name unless it be called ITrench Renaiscence, 
which would imply an earlier origin for that style than 
is generally given to it. The best definition of it would 
be a French fortress made into a palatial home. 
There is still something of the mediaeval thought of 
defence, but there is not much of this. For the 
most part, beauty has taken the place once held by 
the stern defences of the French castles. The rea- 
son is not far to seek. When these two buildings 
were made, the feudal lords did not have need to 
defend themselves against a foreign foe or even 
against each other. The English had been driven 
away from these fair lands of France and Louis XI. 
had made a kingdom where before were warring 
barons, and no unity of national life. 

It is curious how quickly the thought of beauty 
130 



: I" ■.^-.,— ^\ -;°l§f^»'' '*"■ 









CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-RIDEAU 131 

came after the feudal fort was no longer needed. 
Some think that Chenonceaux and Azay-le-Rideau 
are the most beautiful buildings of their kind in the 
world. 

The change from the defensive to the orna- 
mental architecture is interesting. The forms and 
lines of the old castles were retained to some ex- 
tent, but they were adapted to a different purpose. 
The sterner features are left out and only what is 
beautiful or strong in the older way of building is 
retained. The archers' loopholes give place to 
beautiful broad windows with carved ornaments in 
stone about them. The drawbridge is replaced by a 
structure of stone with sculptured lions about it. 

Azay-le-Rideau is very peculiar in shape. The 
main part is almost square, but there is a wing which 
comes from it at a right angle and this is first seen 
after crossing the bridge of the lions. At every 
corner are round towers with conical tops. They 
are of white stone and the roofs are of blue slate. 
All about are great trees that in the days of autumn 
are yellow and orange and green that is less brilliant 
than in summer. There are many vines about the 
bridge and the balustrades of the terraces, that are 
brilliantly red like the woodbine and the sumach in 
October. 

All these colors are not seen once only. Both 



132 CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-RIDEAF 

nature and art so delight in the charm of them that 
they must needs be repeated in the waters of the 
Indre that flow all about Azay-le-Rideau. 

Looking upon this chateau and what is about it 
on one of those days of autumn sunshine, the first 
and almost overpowering effect is that of color so 
exquisitely harmonized, so often repeated in note 
after note of the same chord, that for a while one 
cannot think of any other beauty. But afterward 
a beauty of form is found that is in harmony with 
the color charm. The building is exquisitely propor- 
tioned. It has the same dignity of restfulness that 
is in a perfectly modelled statue. There is another 
charm of form that comes from the gabled windows 
different in height, and the rich sculptures about 
them. 

Thus the whole picture is gradually unfolded, 
and when it has been enjoyed as a whole comes the 
pleasure of seeking out the beautiful things in the 
detailed work all about the building. The orna- 
ment everywhere is as rich as it can be without inter- 
fering with the general effect. In making his orna- 
ment subservient to his lines, the architect of Azay-le- 
Rideau agreed with the Gothic builders, but there 
is no other suggestion of Gothic here. 

When the picture of this place as a whole and in 
its detail has been enjoyed, admired, studied perhaps. 



CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-RIDEATJ 133 

there comes a thought about the river. Why does it 
wind about the walls of this stately home ? It must 
be because the feudal way of building here had not 
only its suggestion of tower or machicolation modi- 
fied and made into ornamental forms, but also had to 
do with the choice of site; for the river would have 
served for a moat in mediaeval days, and when it did 
not flow of itself it would still be able to fill a moat 
if one was needed. 

The rivers and the hills determined the site of 
many a castle in Touraine. In these that were built 
later than the ancient strongholds, the beauty of the 
water was counted upon as much as its defensive 
use. The architect knew that the natural mirror 
of a placid stream would double the charm of his 
building. It does more than that, for reflection in 
water is not mere repetition. There is something 
dreamy about the way it gives back its thought of 
all that is about it. 

The lines are reversed and there is almost always 
a little movement that softens the outlines, melting 
them into an indistinctness, an ever-changing uncer- 
tainty, delicious to an artist or a poet. 

For this reason, as well as because of the beauty 
of the building itself, the view of Azay-le-Rideau 
from the side of the Indre opposite the gate of en- 
trance seems to me one of the most beautiful views 



134 CHEN ONCE ATJX AND AZAY-LB-EIDEAXJ 

of a perfect building, perfectly situated, that can be 
seen in all the world. 

And when one wanders through the park, follow- 
ing paths shaded by great forest trees, and here and 
there crossing the river on a picturesque bridge 
catching almost at every turn some glimpse through 
the leaves of the white chateau, the blue turret tops, 
the green lawn, the balustrade with its crimson 
vine, the whole scene takes a place quite its own. 
There is but one Azay-le-Rideau. 

No wonder this was a home for pleasure, and when 
the kings and the nobles came here, as they often 
did, it was for rest and relaxation. Their sterner 
work was not done here. 

Here, doubtless, the charm of woman was supreme, 
but there is no one woman so closely associated 
with Azay-le-Rideau as was the case in several of 
the other famous castles. 

Francis I. and Louis XIV. often came here, and it 
is easy to imagine they must have brought charming 
company with them. 

The historical associations of the chateau are more 
connected with Francis I. than any other of the 
French kings. 

This pleasure-loving but most able king had more 
to do with the building of the French chateaux of 
this time than any one else. Not only did he build 



CHENONCBAUX AND AZAY-LE-RIDEAU 135 

new ones, but lie remodelled some of the others. 
There are many traces of him at Azay-le-Rideau, 
both without and within. Above the main entrance 
are beautifully carved his salamander and the ermine 
of Claude of Brittany, his wife. Over the chimney- 
piece in the library, which is a very beautiful work 
of sculptural art, the arms of Francis are carved. 
There is a room called the " Chamber of the Kings," 
where the monarchs slept when they came to Azay- 
le-Rideau. 

In this room was once a fine portrait of Catherine 
de' Medici by Clouet, but this has now been hung in 
one of the rooms on the second floor. The collection 
of pictures here is very large and extremely interest- 
ing, but unfortunately the ordinary visitor is allowed 
but little time to see it, for the chateau now belongs 
to the Marquis de Biencourt, and it is only by his 
courtesy that visitors can enter at all. 

Even in the short time one has to look at the pict- 
ures a great impression is produced by them. Fran- 
cis I., Calvin, Mary Stuart, Henry II., Charles IX., 
Marguerite of Navarre, the venerable Coligny, the 
Maid of Orleans, Anne of Austria still striving to be 
beautiful, and showing off the " fairest hand and arm 
in France " — all these are here, and there are many 
more beside them. 

The house is full of the portraits of noble and 



136 CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-RIDEAU 

distinguished people. If they stepped down from 
their frames, they would make a goodly company 
indeed, as they walked about the halls of the castle 
or wandered beneath the trees of the park by the 
river-side. Many of them were great people, but 
even royalty has seldom found a more charming 
home than this many-towered white mansion by the 
banks of the Indre. 

At Chenonceaux historical association plays so 
prominent a part that it should be spoken of even 
before the castle itself is described. This was the 
home of Diane de Poitiers, one of the most remark- 
able women in all French history. It was not built 
by her, although she added largely to it. Thomas 
Bohier and Catherine Brigonnet were the originators 
of it. Bohier should have finished it, for he gave 
money and pains enough toward building it, but he 
became a bankrupt, and his family were bankrupts 
also — all involved in the one misfortune. Then the 
property was forfeited to the crown. 

When Henry II. came to the throne he gave this 
chateau to Diane de Poitiers, who had long coveted 
it. She used to come here on hunting-parties from 
Plessis-les-Tours, riding with the young Dauphin in 
the gay train of Francis I. It is natural to think of 
this famous favorite as a devotee of pleasure, but 
although very beautiful, she was hard and cold and 



CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-EIDBAU 137 

calculating; extremely avaricious, and losing no 
opportunity to enrich herself, no matter at whose 
cost. . 

She was not satisfied with the king's grant of 
Cheuonceaux, but caused legal proceedings to be 
instituted against the poor Bohiers, with the idea of 
deriving title through them. Curiously enough, she 
was successful in this, but the methods of the courts 
must have been open to question as to their honesty. 

It may truly be said that the stain of stealing and 
of cruelty, cruelty that even pursues its victim to the 
very death, is on the walls of Chenonceaux. But 
Diane finally was the mistress there, and it became 
the central place of the luxurious, but somewhat 
romantic, life of the French court in one of the most 
interesting periods in its history. As one looks upon 
the exquisite beauties of Chenonceaux, it is not pleas- 
ant to think how Diane became their owner, but it is 
pleasant to think that her ownership was a short one ; 
for Catherine de' Medici took it away from her, as 
soon as she could after the king's death, and sent her 
away to Chaumont, and then Catherine herself lived 
for a time at Chenonceaux. Other queens lived there 
too. Mary Stuart came there with her young hus- 
band, Francis II., and some of the happiest months 
of her troubled life were spent here. Anne of Aus- 
tria and her son Louis XIV. were here. 



138 CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-KIDEATJ 

One would have to mention every famous warrior 
in French history at that time, if the list were to be 
complete of those who loved to linger in the beautiful 
halls and gardens of this exquisite chateau. 

But not only kings and queens were here. Later 
in its history the chateau was a resort for literary 
men. Rousseau and Voltaire, Diderot, Buffon, many 
of the greatest men in the French world of letters, 
were here. There are few buildings whose associa- 
tions are more interesting than those of Chenonceaux. 

The chateau is reached through a long avenue. It 
is straight, as the custom is in France, and it is over- 
arched by great sycamore trees ; they are called 
plane trees in France. These trees are planted close 
together, and therefore not room enough is left for 
the growth of the lower branches. The verdure is 
all above, and it is supported by the two rows of tree- 
trunk columns as though it were one long arched 
roof. This use of trees, although too formal for the 
modern landscape gardener, has its own beauty, per- 
haps rather a stately dignity, which is very impres- 
sive especially when an avenue thus treated is as 
broad and long as it is here. 

This avenue that leads to Chenonceaux is guarded 
at the entrance to the grounds by two marble 
sphinxes. In such choice of ornament at the very 
gate there is something quite suggestive of the char- 



CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-RIDEAU 139 

acter of this famous royal favorite. It may be that 
Diane herself did not choose the subject for these 
statues, and yet it is possible and thoroughly in keep- 
ing with her character that she did. If she did not 
do it, some artist did who had failed to read the riddle 
of her nature. The riddle of the sphinx is not harder 
to read. Diane de Poitiers was apparently the very 
source whence came the luxury and licentiousness 
of a dissolute court, and yet she herself was utterly 
hard and passionless. It is said that she never used 
the paints and powders used too freely by the other 
ladies of the court, but preserved her beauty even to 
old age by vigorous athletic exercise patiently per- 
severed in, and also by never allowing herself to be 
disturbed by emotion of any kind. She rose early 
and rode on her horse around the beautiful park of 
Chenonceaux, at the time of the sunrise. Returning 
to her apartment, she went again to her couch and 
" gracefully d^shabill^e " transacted her business for 
the day. Later she came, fresh and beautiful as ever, 
to the fetes and enjoyments of the afternoon and 
evening. Diane de Poitiers must have had great 
beauty of form if Jean Goujon's statue of her as 
" Diana, the Huntress " at the chS,teau of Anet is 
true. Probably it is; for that great artist would not 
lie even to flatter, as many of them did. Her beauty 
cannot be known about now, because the pictures and 



140 CHENOlSrCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-RIDEAU 

statues of her do not agree. There seems to have 
been something of the Amazon about her, and some- 
thing of Vivien, too, at the moment when she charmed 
Merlin under the gnarled oak. 

After entering the gateway and passing the 
sphinxes, even the mysterious Diane is forgotten in 
the beauty of her home. 

First rises in full view the tower of Catherine Bri- 
Qonnet, the only part of her building that remains. 
It is circular in form with the conical top of the 
older fortress-chateaux, but the line of the cone is 
broken by a smaller cone similar in general outline, 
but not rising so high. 

This tower is quite detached, and stands alone at 
some distance from the portal of Chenonceaux. The 
effect of it is not only almost indescribably pictur- 
esque, but full of that meaning which only a poet can 
fitly express. It seems like a sentry left by ages pas^ 
to watch the castle gate, and there is a sadness in its 
loneliness because the watch it kept was in vain. It 
could not prevent the entrance here of what was 
unseemly, what would have been utterly abhorrent 
to the thought of Catherine Bri9onnet. 

But what this solitary tower guards, and even 
frowns upon, is far lovelier than itself, though not 
so strong. It is the chateau of Chenonceaux — one 
of the few buildings in the world absolutely unique, 



CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-EIDEAU 141 

because it has little or no resemblance to any other, 
even of those that were built in the same time and 
with an effort at the same effect. 

The beauty of the building is so delicate, so charm- 
inor, that it seems like a realized dream. What dream 
might that have been? Possibly a thought of old 
French forts ; but that would only have lasted a min- 
ute. Possibly something of the luxury and splen- 
dor of the Alhambra. That thought would have 
lasted longer ; but even that is not all that might 
be dreamed about here. A castle that is built on 
arches over a river is so rarely seen that it makes 
any student of architecture wonder what was the 
impelling motive in the building of it. 

Chenonceaux is built across the Cher. A part of 
it is on one bank, a part on the other ; the long gal- 
lery connecting the two is on the arches over the 
river. Though built in this most singular way, the 
effect is not unlike that of Azay-le-Rideau. There 
is the same brilliant white of the stone, the same 
deep blue of the turret-cones, and there are the 
sculptured windows and the fine roof line, most 
artistically broken here and there by the tower or 
the gable over a window. 

It is rather interesting to think that the construc- 
tion of a building which was in itself almost an 
expression of the luxury of kings should have been 



142 CHENOHCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-RIDEAtJ 

determined by the presence of a mill on the Cher 
bank. The river turned the mill-wheel, the grain 
was ground, there was food for the rich and the 
poor; but the foundations of the old mill supported 
later, long after its stones had ceased to grind, the 
palace that bridges the Cher. It was not well that 
the work of the mill should be stopped. A little 
later in French history the kings themselves would 
have been glad enough if the mills would give the 
people flour for their bread. 

Diane de Poitiers used these mill foundations for 
her great gallery. Catherine de' Medici added to 
the building which Diane had begun. 

The Cher is quite a broad river here, and there- 
fore the galleries that cross it upon the stone arches 
are long. From every window in them is a view 
up and down of the river and the meadows, the 
noble trees, the vineyards, and the sloping hillsides 
that come down to the river's bank. 

But Diane de Poitiers was not content even with 
such loveliness as this. She had to have a garden, 
and she meant it to be unrivalled. It was an Italian 
garden, surrounded by the carved stone balustrades 
so familiar both in French and Italian pictures. To 
its beauty the best gardeners of France gave of their 
skill, and in its day it was thought to be without a 
peer. Now it seems stiff and formal in its arrange- 



CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-EIDEAU 143 

ment, because landscape-gardening has become a dif- 
ferent and a far more beautiful art in these days. 

The situation of this garden was chosen with per- 
fect taste, because from its walks and terraces can 
be obtained the most exquisite views of the chateau 
and the park about it, and the river flowing in the 
midst and repeating in its clear mirror every line of 
arch and turret, every color of tree, and meadow 
flower, and vine. 

From here the roof of Chenonceaux can best be 
studied. I doubt if there is a more beautiful roof in 
the world. It is high pitched. The cones of the 
turret-tops are not far above the cornice, and there- 
fore they are relieved against the roof itself. The 
chimneys, which are richly carved, spring directly 
from the roof with most charming variety of position 
and grouping. 

What a picture it must have been when Henry II. 
and Diane de Poitiers, and all the courtiers in their 
gorgeous costumes, walked in this garden by the 
river, with the beauty of the castle just beyond. A 
Watteau or a Monticelli would have loved to paint 
such a scene. Isabey's palette of flaming colors 
might have rendered it even better. 

At one time Chenonceaux must have been nearly 
as beautiful within as it was without. The rooms 
were large and finely proportioned, and the long 



144 CHE5^0JSCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-EIDEAU 

gallery over the river was a very uncommon and 
interesting feature, especially when ornamented as 
it once was by superb statues, — antiques most of 
them, — and by many fine pictures. Beside all this, 
the walls of the rooms were hung with the richest 
tapestry. There were heavy, soft curtains over the 
doors, and the more stately rooms were adorned 
with armor and weapons, coats .of arms and all 
those splendidly decorative things that belong to 
the feudal days. 

Now, alas ! it is all very different. Most of the 
fine works of art have been taken away and sold to 
pay the debts the owners of the castle owed to the 
state. There has been some attempt at restoration 
of these rooms and halls that in other days were so 
beautiful, but, unfortunately, most of this work is in 
bad taste. 

Only a small part of the interior is now shown to 
visitors. Mary Stuart's room was not opened to us 
at all, and I could only catch a hasty glimpse of the 
apartment of Catherine de' Medici — a sombre room 
with heavy panelling, whose atmosphere seemed quite 
in keeping with the character of its occupant. What 
room in the chateau the fair Diane herself habitually 
used as a sleeping-room I could not find out. 

But the interior on the whole is not as interesting 
as that of Azay-le-Rideau — nor is it comparable in 



CHENONCEAUX AND AZAY-LE-EIDEAU 145 

charm to that of Langeais, which is perhaps the most 
delightful of all the Touraine chateaux so far as its 
interior is concerned, although it has not such asso- 
ciations with the most brilliant days of French history 
as has Chenonceaux. 

In the evening the train slowly returns to Tours, 
and as we wait for its long-deferred arrival, there is 
plenty of leisure time in which one may reflect upon 
the singular beauty of the chateau and its surround- 
ings, and also upon the extraordinary character of 
the woman who was so long its inspiring spirit. 



CHAPTER XVII 

CHINON 

The churches and the chateaux of mediseval 
France are closely connected in their history. There 
is also a religious spirit in both of them. It seems 
strange even to speak of religion in the same breath 
with the stories about what has been done in these 
old castles, and yet the fact is that war, religion, and 
sensuality are most curiously interwoven in the story 
of them all. 

To the lover of history the castle of Chinon is 
more interesting than any other in the region of old 
Touraine, not because its historical associations are 
more numerous, but because they are centralized 
about the most interesting figure in French history — 
one of the most interesting in all history — Joan of 
Arc, the maid of Domr^my. It was at Chinon that 
she had her first interview with Charles VII., and 
therefore it is the thought of her more than of all 
the other great people who came to Chinon that 
inspires this place, filling it with a spirit higher 

146 




"FJ' 



h 




h^. 






/■ 





CHINON 147 

and more lovely than that of any other castle in 
France. 

But Chinon was an old castle when she came to it. 
It is very closely associated with the Plantagenet 
kings, for it was a stronghold of Henry II. of England, 
and here he died. Richard Coeur de Lion and the 
other sons of Henry were all here, and some of the 
most tragic scenes between the king and his unruly 
sons took place at Chinon. When Henry died here, 
almost with his last breath he cursed the sons whom 
he said had killed him. At this chateau English and 
French history are more closely linked together than 
at any other castle in France. 

Chinon is situated on a high hill which overlooks 
the valley of the Vienne. The castle was once of 
vast extent, but is now a ruin. Only enough re- 
mains of its towers and walls to show where it stood, 
and to trace with some approach to certainty the 
general arrangement of its halls and rooms, its ram- 
parts, magazines and dungeons, and also its chapel. 
Before gunpowder was invented the castle was 
thought to be impregnable ; for the hill on which 
it stands is very steep and high on three sides, and 
on the fourth side a deep chasm was artificially 
made that completely isolates it. The walls were 
very lofty and strong, and the massive towers rose 
far above these, thus giving means of defence that 



148 CHINON 

in feudal days could not be overcome. The town 
clusters about the base of the hill far below the 
castle walls, but it climbs up as far as it can toward 
the strong protector above. 

There are spires among these high-pitched roofs 
of blue slate which seem almost like spires them- 
selves. "Where these spires rise were, and still are, 
the churches; and they are the very churches that 
were there in the time of Joan of Arc. When the 
inspired peasant girl climbed the steep path that 
led to the castle, she must have looked down upon 
just such a town as is there to-day; and she could 
see the church where she prayed before she went 
to see the king, and perhaps the house of the widow 
who sheltered her when she came to Chinon and 
waited until she could see Charles VII. 

It may be that when she reached the height where 
the castle stands, she looked farther than the town, 
beyond its roof and its spires, and rested for a 
moment, — even although she was going to see the 
king with the purpose of delivering him from his 
foes, — that she might look upon the glorious land- 
scape below and all about the hill of the castle, 
reaching even to the far horizon. If she did, then, 
look upon this lovely land, her heart must have 
thrilled again with patriotic ardor, and she must 
have once more vowed to deliver this sunny, fertile 



CHINON 149 

heritage of the kings of France from the stranger 
and the oppressor. It is now, and it was then, a 
land of vineyards and orchards, of growing grain, and 
of noble forests. Then as now the sparkling stream of 
the Vienne came rippling down the valley from so 
far away that its bright water seemed to touch the 
brighter sky ere it left it to come hither. Passing 
beneath majestic bridges with many stone arches, 
the Vienne seems to linger long, serenely content 
beneath the hill of Chinon. Reluctantly passing 
the great castle, as though it were loath to leave it, 
it passes beneath more stone arches, and wanders 
amid more fields, until at last — a thread of silver — 
it is lost again in the bright sky from which it came. 
In all its long wanderings it was everywhere a 
blessing ; for the vines grew beside it, and the trees 
bent over to kiss it, and the meadows throbbed with 
more living green beneath its touch. Beyond the 
valley rose low hills that encircled it, and these 
were partly vine clad, and sometimes their slopes 
were yellow with the ripening grain. Some of them 
were dark with the shade of great trees. Here and 
there the sentry poplars guarded the ways that went 
from one happy hamlet to another, each with its church 
spire. So far away were the broad fields one after 
the other, and the low hills that were about them, so 
long was the course of the bright river from where 



150 CHINON 

it left the sky far away to where it joined it again, 
that this land lying here with one charm after an- 
other to delight the eye and lead it even to the 
horizon, seems in itself a kingdom, a great domain 
where people might dwell peacefully, and for whose 
safety one might be content to die, if sacrifice of life 
were needed to preserve its homes and fields. 

Upon this scene looked Joan of Arc when she 
stood before the bridge that leads across the moat 
to the lofty Tour de I'Horloge. This high tower 
with machicolated battlements, with pinnacle at 
one end and turret at the other, is still standing 
more perfectly preserved than anything else which 
now remains of the ancient castle. Here the 
soldiers used to work the portcullis, and there is 
still a narrow slit in the wall through which they 
looked to see who was there before they would 
give admittance, and through this slit still looks 
the concierge to see what visitors approach. Here 
stood the peasant girl of Domr^my while the 
soldiers looked at her ere they raised the portcullis 
and let the drawbridge down. It must have been 
a strange moment, one of deep import even in the 
life of one who was accustomed to what was won- 
derful, what she herself thought to be supernatural, 
because if the bridge was lowered and the portcullis 
raised, she would soon stand in the presence of the 



CHINON 151 

king of France, and all that she had seen in her 
visions would begin to take on its earthly form. 

The great hall in which Joan of Arc met the 
king was in the Chateau dii Milieu, a part of the 
castle that immediately adjoins the Tour de 
I'Horloge. This was not the part built by the 
English Plantagenet kings, which was called the 
castle and chapel of St. George. This English 
part was built to defend the one weak point of 
Chinon, the only place where its natural hill 
defence was not complete. All that the English 
had built was behind the Maid of Orleans when 
she passed beneath the portcullis in the Tour de 
I'Horloge and entered the great courtyard of the 
castle. What was before her was the French 
building, and it was there that the French king 
was holding his courts. There in lazy, luxurious 
idleness his time was spent, nor did he like to 
leave, even for a time, the caresses of his favorite 
to listen to one who came to tell him of the woes 
of France and to nerve him to such action as 
might redress them. 

Truly the French part of the castle was before 
her and the English part behind. Truly at that 
moment the English page of French history was 
turned and the French one opened. 

There is very little left of the great hall at 



152 CHINON 

Chinon where Joan of Arc had her interview with 
Charles VII. One gabled end there is, and to this 
is still attached at the height of the first floor the 
chimneypiece before which their interview must 
have taken place. -Even this is partly in ruins, 
but enough remains to show its general form and 
appearance. The kitchen, the armory, and the 
common hall, or living room, were beneath the 
grand hall of the king. Nothing remains of any 
of these except fragments of walls and foundations 
by which the general outline and arrangement can 
be traced. All of these rooms were on the side of 
the castle facing the Vienne and its valley, and 
from every window could be had that glorious view 
of river and field, valley and hill slopes, of which I 
have already spoken. One of the fairest provinces 
of France was at the feet of the king and the maid 
as they talked, and it must have seemed to reach 
forth supplicating hands to them entreating them to 
save it from the oppression of the stranger. 

Joan of Arc stayed at Chinon more than a 
month, and while there she was lodged in the 
Tour du Coudray. This tower is a part of the 
old fort of Coudray, which was the farthest west 
of the three fortresses that crowned the hill. It 
was one of the inner towers, and did not command 
the same magnificent view as the towers on the 



CHINON 153 

valley side of the fortress. Originally, it was a 
lofty tower with three stories of rooms in it. The 
upper part is in ruins, but the room of the maid 
remains much as it was, and the staircase leading 
to the upper room also occupied by her is partly 
preserved. 

Not very far from this tower are the ruins of 
the chapel of St. Martin, where Joan of Arc 
prayed after her interviews with the king. It is 
said that her supplications here were long and 
fervent, and they seem to have been greatly 
needed; for it was very hard to arouse the slug- 
gish, pleasure-loving king. He did not want to 
fight; he wanted to enjoy himself. Little he 
thought about France ; much he thought about the 
favorites who surrounded him. It seems almost a 
miracle that he ever was aroused from this lazy, 
luxurious life, and that he did at last give the 
peasant maiden her armor, put her white banner 
in her hand, and follow her to battle. How those 
who lived in that licentious court must have felt 
when they looked upon this pure maiden, who 
was a living rebuke to them ! How they must 
have slandered her to the weak king, a voluptuary 
himself and quite willing to lend his ear to any 
tale of scandal! It is no wonder that Joan of Arc 
had to pray for a month in St. Martin's chapel. 



154 CHINON 

The wonder is that at last she was permitted to 
go in her king's name, bearing his banner, to rescue 
his country and hers, and to turn backward the tide 
of English invasion which had well nigh overflowed 
all the land of France. 

Enough remains of the ruins of Chinon to tell 
what Joan of Arc's life must have been during the 
month she dwelt there. It requires but little imag- 
ination to rebuild the walls and towers, even the 
chapel, and to people them again with the characters 
so well known in history, among whom she moved 
during her stay in the castle. 

In all France there is no more fascinating place in 
which to linger and to dream. I might not be wrong 
if I called it a sacred place. It is now a shrine since 
Joan of Arc may be called to be a saint by the 
Roman Church. But this religious inspiration is not 
all of the spirit of it. The glorious landscape has its 
part also. 

Passing from the great hall along the ramparts 
and coming to the Tour de Boissy and the Tour du 
Moulin, this wonderful view is seen in ever-changing 
lights. Sometimes a part of it is framed in a ruined 
window. Sometimes but a little can be seen through _ 
some narrow opening used by the archers. Again from 
a tower-top the whole vast prospect bursts upon the 
astonished eye. The rush of thought and feeling at 



CHINON 155 

once becomes bewildering. There is so deep an im- 
pression upon the mind and the senses at the same 
time that one knows not whether to shut his eyes and 
go back in thought to the intrepid maid, or open them 
and look upon one of the fairest landscapes of earth. 

By the Tour d'Argenton, another of the great 
towers upon Chinon's walls, is a secret passage that 
led from the king's apartments to those of Agnes 
Sorel. This remarkable woman completed the work 
which Joan of Arc did not live to finish. 

Agnes Sorel was one among the many famous 
women who have had so great an influence upon the 
development of France as a nation. It is true that 
she was the king's mistress, but it is also true that 
she inspired him to do the best and noblest things 
he ever did in his life. She sent him to battle. He 
left her to seek salvation for France and honor for 
himself. To the inspiration of her words, the magic 
of her presence, the wisdom of her counsels, must be 
attributed, in a large degree, the success of Charles 
VII. in finishing the work Joan of Arc began. 

This woman was very beautiful. She was called 
" La Belle des Belles," — the very queen of beauty, 
— and her nature seems to have been as lovely as her 
person, for she was greatly revered by the poor and 
reverenced by the nuns and monks, whose churches 
and convents she munificently endowed. 



166 CHINON 

The ruined halls and towers of Chinon are becom- 
ing more and more thickly peopled with those re- 
nowned in history ; but there are many more to come 
beside these who hold the chief place in the castle's 
story. 

Louis XI. was here. Philippe de Commines was 
at Chinon. One of the last scenes in the time of 
the castle's glory was the entry of Csesar Borgia. 
He brought the cardinal's hat for Georges d'Am- 
boise, and he was well paid for doing it. In history, 
as in life, extremes meet sometimes. How can one 
think of Joan of Arc and Caesar Borgia under the 
same roof ? They were there at different times, but 
Chinon sheltered both of them for many days. 

After the Prince of Condd, one of the last of those 
who dwelt at Chinon, the chateau was given to Riche- 
lieu. He had so many castles that he could not live 
in all of them, and for some reason Chinon did not 
please him, and he let it fall into decay and ruin. 
There never has been any attempt at restoration in 
Chinon. There is not enough left of it to make 
possible such work as has been done at Carcassonne 
and Mont St. Michel. But for many years before 
its massive masonry crumbles to dust it will be 
eloquent of its story. 

The two great toAvers of the castle are the Tour de 
B'oissy and the Tour du Moulin. The windmill 



CHINON 157 

tower is very curious, partly because of its singular 
construction with double, apparently disconnected 
tiers of arches inside, and partly because of its 
position at the very end of the Chateau du Milieu, 
where it would be more exposed to danger, in case 
of an attack, than any other part of the castle. It 
is strange to have a windmill on a fortress wall, but 
it is stranger yet to have it in a place where it might 
so easily be destroyed. 

There are many old Roman statues, little figures, 
fragments, in this Tour du Moulin, quite enough to 
show that the Romans used the place as a stronghold. 

The Tour de Boissy had once a conical roof like 
the other towers of the old French castles, but this 
has now disappeared and a flat roof of stone and lead 
has taken its place. From the top of this tower can 
be had one of the finest views of the old castle itself, 
and also of the magnificent landscape of the valley of 
the Vienne. 

Following from this tower the line of the walls, 
one comes to the entrance to the dungeons, of which 
there were many, tier below tier, clear down to the 
level of the valley. A dungeon is an article which 
was in great demand in the days when the French 
castles were built, and most of them had a large 
and choice assortment of them. There were also 
oubliettes at Chinon more terrible than the dungeons, 



158 CHINON 

perhaps, although the lingering torture might be 
worse than the sudden plunge to death. 

There is one more tower on Chinon's walls, — the 
Tour des Chiens, where the king kept his hounds. It 
has no architectural beauty, and there is very little of 
interest in it. Near this tower is the chapel of St. 
M^laine, in which Henry 11. died. As his end drew 
near, he was borne to this chapel that he might die 
before the altar. 

So many pictures from the past had been before us 
during our day at Chinon that it was as delightful 
as it was unexpected to see one from the present. 

As we stood in the Tour de I'Horloge, just above 
the gateway through which Joan of Arc entered, 
there came a sound of merry voices from below. 
Looking down from the tower window, we saw a 
bridal procession coming up the steep path toward 
the castle. It was led by the bride and the bride- 
groom, and the guests followed them. The concierge 
left us at once and went down to open the door for 
this gay party. When she came back we asked her 
why tlie brides came to Chinon, and she answered 
that it was a custom, a habit of many years, even cen- 
turies perhaps, for those just married to come with 
their friends and dance upon the smooth stone floor 
that is now the top of the Tour de Boissy. I asked 
her why they went there. She did not know. It 



CHINOK 159 

was a custom and had always been so ever since she 
had been m the castle. It was not hard to discover 
the reason for it. It was not because there is a glori- 
ous view from the tower, though happy brides might 
find pleasure in looking upon such a scene on their 
wedding-day. The reason wh}- the brides come here 
is that the spirit of Joan of Arc is in the castle. It 
is here that her wonderful career began so far as the 
king and his courtiers knew of it, although her visions 
were at Domr^my in the little orchard by her home. 
What maiden of France would not love to commune 
with the spirit of Joan of Arc ere she set forth on 
her own journey through life? Toward the highest 
thought of what life may be, there could hardly be 
a more powerful inspiration. The brides come here 
that they may learn something of that spirit of devo- 
tion and self-sacrifice which made a heroine and a 
saint of a simple peasant maiden. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 

In" visiting the castles of Touraine it is better to 
stay a part of the time at Tours and a part at Blois, 
because some chateaux are more easily accessible 
from one place and some from the other. Blois has 
a great advantage over Tours, because one of the 
greatest of all the castles is here. After seeing 
Chinon and Langeais, Chenonceaux and Azay-le- 
Rideau, it seems scarcely possible that there could 
be another Touraine castle capable of giving an im- 
pression (^uite different from that produced by any 
of the others and in some ways more interesting than 
any of them. 

Blois is as overpowering in its beauty, as thrill- 
ingly interesting in its historical suggestions, as if 
there were no chateau but itself in all Touraine. 
Like most of the others, it has its ancient history. 
The Romans had a fortified camp here. Later the 
early counts of Blois made the place a stronghold 
wherein they might resist their enemies, — the counts 

160 




s-^ >-aa 




III! 



3 






\%t 




STAIRCASE OF THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 



THE chIteau of blois 161 

of Anjou. For ages what is now a chateau was a 
fortress. 

Its chief interest and its beauty do not come from 
these earlier times. Louis XII. was the first king 
who tried to make Blois beautiful. He built one 
side of the court of which Francis I. built a second 
and Gaston d'Orleans a third. 

The fifteenth-century Gothic of Louis XII. 's part 
of the building is a wonderfully beautiful example 
of that exquisite style. 

The entrance to the castle is through a portal 
which is surmounted by an equestrian statue of this 
monarch, man and horse fully armed ready for the 
many battles in Italy wherein the king took part. 
This statue is of gray granite, and the crown and 
armor of the king and the trappings of his war-steed 
are gilded. It is an ornament most fit for the portal 
of such a castle, whose greatness came from kings 
and queens. 

Not princes, or dukes, or knights, made Blois what 
it is, nor had any but the kings much to do with it. 
The part built by Gaston d'Orleans is a failure in 
its exterior, and within it is even worse. Not even 
so great a duke as Guise could here resist the king, 
though murder most foul alone ended his attempted 
resistance. 

Even while looking at this long building that 



162 THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 

Louis XII. built of brick and granite with its perfect 
Gothic windows, one above the other, reaching far 
up toward the top of the high-pitched roof, with its 
lofty gateway in the same beautiful style and the 
martial statue above it with its wealth of carving, — 
its beauty of form and line, — it is hardly possible to 
think very much about it, because the place is 
haunted by the spirit of the murdered duke, and 
the first thought is not of its beauties but of the 
place where he was killed. 

Nevertheless, the colonnade of Louis XII.'s build- 
ing has much to do with this tragedy. It extends 
from the wing built by Francis L to the chapel of 
Anne of Brittany. 

When Henry III. and the Duke de Guise met 
in that time in December, 1588, a little before 
Christmas, their meeting took place at the bottom 
of the great staircase of Blois. They were going 
to the mass together in sign of friendship. To 
reach the chapel they had to pass in front of 
Louis XII.'s colonnade. The well-known picture 
by Comte, now in the Luxembourg, has for its sub- 
ject this meeting. 

The beauty of this colonnade may not have been 
noticed by either of them at that time, but it was 
there then as it is now. The king and the duke 
passed before its richly ornamented arches as they 



THE CH5.TEAU OF BLOIS 163 

went toward the chapel. In the combination of 
the domestic and the religious uses of Gothic archi- 
tecture, there are few things in the world more inter- 
esting than this colonnade and the chapel to which 
it leads. Its suggestion of the home and the church 
so closely brought together ought to have made 
Henry III. pause to think before he caused the 
Duke de Guise to be murdered under his own 
roof, and but a little while after that mass in the 
chapel, which was to be a solemn seal of friend- 
ship. The king did not pause, however, for even 
while he was in the chapel the " forty-five," D'Eper- 
non's famous guards, were making their prepara- 
tions for the assassination. 

In the part of the castle built by Francis I. were 
the apartments of Catherine de' Medici and those 
of Henry III. The queen's were below those of 
the king. They have been restored and are now 
almost as they were, except for the absence of fur- 
niture. Enough remained of the ancient decoration 
to permit of its perfect restoration by such a master 
as M. Duban. The bedroom of the wicked queen 
is a long apartment with several windows that look 
out over the park and gardens of the castle, which 
were very extensive in the early days of the history 
of Blois, and are still beautiful. The floor of this 
room is of tile, and the beams of the ceiling are 



164 THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 

profusely ornamented with many designs in splen- 
did color, amid which appears very often the letter 
H^ the initial of Henry II., Catherine's husband. 
The crown, too, is often used with good effect in 
this decoration. Near by is the queen's oratory, 
the walls of which are panelled and ornamented 
with the most exquisite raised traceries in gold. 
Her private working-room beyond is similarly orna- 
mented, and in these two small rooms there are at 
least three hundred ornamental designs, all exe- 
cuted in the same rich but most artistic way. It 
was in the bedroom of this suite of apartments that 
Catherine de' Medici lay on her death-bed, both 
before and after the murder of the Duke de Guise. 
It was here that she implored her son not to 
kill him, one of the few times in her career when 
her voice was lifted upon the side of mercy and 
the sparing of human life. But Henry would not 
listen to her. He told his dying mother that she 
had taught him to kill his enemies, and kill them 
he would. What a strange thing for a son to say 
to his mother on her death-bed! What a parting 
thought of this world that must have been! And 
the queen writhed in her agony, and hoped that 
she might not hear the fall of Guise's body, because 
that would tell her the last deed of blood of her 
bloody life had been done. 



THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 165 

Directly above the rooms where the dying queen 
lay are the apartments that were then occupied by 
her son, Henrj^ III. The arrangement of the two 
suites of apartments is similar, and both are gor- 
geously decorated. There is a private stairway 
that connects the two and then leads up from the 
king's apartments to the roof. It was in this stair- 
way that D'Epernon concealed his forty-five guards- 
men. There were two private rooms in Henry's 
suite of apartments in which he received those with 
whom he wished to confer secretly, and where he 
worked himself when he wished to be quite alone. 
One was the old cabinet and the other the new. 
The Duke cle Guise was asked to go to the new 
one. In turning from the door of the staircase to 
pass through the bedroom of King Henry, he was 
attacked from behind by the guardsmen who were 
concealed in the stairway. He made a gallant 
struggle for life, fighting all those who assailed 
him with wonderful strength and a spirit that knew 
no fear. At last he fell by the very bed-side of 
the king, and the queen, almost in her death agony 
below, heard his body fall and knew that the last 
of her lessons of bloodshed was carried to the end 
to which the others had been carried. 

It was not long before this tragedy that Mary 
Stuart and her husband Francis II. had occupied 



166 THE chIteau of blois 

these same rooms where this murder was committed. 
They were happy here, it is said, but they could not 
have rested peacefully if they had known what was 
to happen so soon in that very room where they 
lived and loved for a brief time. 

It is not far from these gorgeous rooms to a 
prison cell in which was confined the Cardinal of 
Lorraine, the brother of the murdered Duke de 
Guise. The day after the duke was killed, the 
cardinal was summoned from his cell to meet the 
king. As he walked along the stone gallery with 
its richly carved balustrade that led toward the 
apartments of Henry III. he, too, was struck from be- 
hind and murdered. The bodies of these two Guise 
princes were burned, and the ashes strewn upon the 
waters of the Loire. 

The Guises had been induced to come from Paris, 
where their chief following was, in order to attend 
a meeting of the States-General, which the king had 
called in the great hall which is at the angle of the 
castle between the parts built by Francis I. and 
Louis XII. This Salle d'Etats dates from the 
beginning of the thirteenth century, and has been 
restored by the same master hand that has brought 
the rest of the castle to life again. It is now one of 
the finest Gothic halls in Europe with its pointed 
windows, and its row of columns that divide it in the 



THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 167 

middle, and support the vault of a Gothic roof over 
each part. 

It is splendid in red and blue and gold as it used 
to be. If the tapestries were there, the room would 
be nearly as it was when the Guises entered it, and 
the king came down the staircase that leads to it 
from the royal apartments. 

It is better now, if one wishes to get a true idea 
of what the chateau of Blois is, to leave those parts 
of it which are so closely connected with the death 
of the duke and the cardinal, and look at it from 
quite another point of view. Although the great 
staircase that Francis I. built is associated with this 
tragedy because of the meeting of the king and the 
duke at the foot of it, there is no reason for sug- 
gesting anything about it, except its beauty. There 
is no such other stairway in the world, I suppose. 
The design of it is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, 
simply for the reason that it is thought no other 
artist who ever lived would have been equal to such 
an achievement of the beauty and strength of archi- 
tecture, combined with the most magnificent orna- 
mentation. I believe there is no testimony of history 
that can be trusted telling that the wonderful genius 
of Leonardo really did this work, nor is there any 
that speaks of any other who did it. It has to tell 
its own story. It is also said that Jean Goujon did 



168 THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 

some of the work of sculpture, but this also is a 
tradition. Certainly the exquisite statue of a woman 
near the foot of the stairway suggests his handiwork, 
but it must be trusted to tell its own tale. The stair- 
case is almost like a detached building about mid- 
way of the front of Francis I.'s wing. It has not 
the effect of a tower. It is related in style to the 
rest of this part of the chateau, and yet it hardly 
seems to belong with it. In the splendid ornamenta- 
tion of its spiral staircase it would seem to belong 
to the time of the Renascence, but it has Gothic 
gargoyles, an-d its form throughout is not like that 
of most buildings of the Renascence time. It 
seems to be almost sui generis, the exquisite 
work of some genius who had his own style and 
cared nothing for the schools. Even in this wonder- 
ful work of art there is a suggestion of the wicked 
queen who died at Blois, for Jean Goujon was killed 
in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 

Although the staircase is so wonderfully beautiful, 
it is not all of the beauty of Francis I.'s building. 
The fagade toward the courtyard is most richly orna- 
mented. The salamander, which was the king's 
emblem, is repeatedly used, too often it may be, but 
some of the representations of this curious creature 
are masterpieces of the carver's art when it was great 
enough to come close to that of the sculptor. In 



THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 169 

beauty of form and line this building does not equal 
the Gothic part that Louis XII. built, but it is far 
superior to the wing that Gaston d'Orleans entrusted 
to Mansard. The style of this within and without 
is in pitiable contrast with either of the others. 
Nevertheless, Gaston must have thought it better 
than the exquisite works of art that were before his 
eyes here. He actually thought of pulling down the 
whole castle and substituting Mansard's work. He 
did destroy a good deal of it, but fortunately the 
best part still remains. 

Beside the three wings, the hall of the States-Gen- 
eral, and the chapel of Anne of Brittany, there is still 
another part of the castle of Blois. It is a very 
ancient tower close to the ramparts that tell of the 
fortress part the place once had in history. This 
tower now stands quite alone. It was once a part of 
the defences of Blois. Now the ivy clings to it and 
seeks to conceal all harm that has been done to it by 
time or violence. It has come to the days of a 
peaceful old age. No longer does any foe attack it, 
no longer does any restless, eager soul seek counsel 
from the heavens on its top. It was hither that Cath- 
erine de' Medici resorted, and with her astronomer 
consulted the stars. It was she who caused it to be 
called " Uranse Sacrum." Its position was well 
suited for study of astronomy. High on the battle- 



170 THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 

ments of Blois, which were themselves high above 
the town, there was nothing to hinder a view of the 
heavens from the horizon to the zenith. What ter- 
rible things must have been told of or suggested 
upon that tower top ! Catherine and Louis XI. are 
alike in their superstition, their cruelty, and their 
professed zeal for the church. The astrologer who 
used the astrolabe here had a great influence upon 
the destinies of France — how much no one will ever 
know. Before any murder was committed or fearful 
crime of whatever nature, Louis XL would pray and 
promise something to the Virgin or some saint, and 
Catherine would go to her oratory in a most devout 
manner, but before the fatal thing was done both 
would go to the astrologer and ask what the outcome 
of the intended crime was to be. 

Upon this old tower of Blois what fearful things 
were thought of, what dreadful deeds decided upon ! 
It may be the stars told Catherine that the Duke 
de Guise ought not to be murdered beneath her roof, 
but perhaps they also said her child was born a 
murderer. 

It is very peaceful now. Far below is the church 
of St. Nicholas — a noble building of early Gothic 
work. The queen may have gone there to mass 
when she left the astrologer in the tower. Now as 
the sun sets the rooks come home to their nests 



THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 171 

about the towers of the church. There are many 
noisy greetings, much restless flying about, but at 
last the old church shelters them and they find peace. 
It was not so with Catherine — not on her tower, 
not in her oratory nor in the royal rooms of Blois, 
haunted by thoughts of blood and crime. 

Below the church of St. Nicholas moves slowly, 
grandly on the Loire. Its peace is not disturbed by 
the evil that has been done upon its banks. It knows 
the secrets of the dungeons, the scaffolds, the assassin's 
knife ; it could tell many a tale of unbridled ambi- 
tion, of licentiousness that scarcely sought conceal- 
ment, but it says no word. It tries to carry away its 
miserable burden of human woe and frailty, and bury 
it in the sea toward which it is eagerly going. 

The sun has set. The rooks are quiet in their 
nests in the old church. The moon rises and silvers 
the river, the towers of the church, the town, the old 
observatory, the stairway of Francis, the colonnade of 
Louis. It shines, too, upon all the other chiteaus by 
the Loire. To each it gives a touch of mystery, to 
all it gives a much-needed peace. Under its mystical 
light all the evil is forgotten, and only the exquisite 
beauty of the castles of Touraine remains in the 
mind. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE CHATEAUX OF LOCHES AND CHATTMONT 

LocHES and Chaumont are so utterly different in 
construction, history, and spirit that I put them to- 
gether in description for the sake of the contrast. 
Loches is on the river Indre. It takes about an hour 
and a half to reach it from Tours. Chaumont is on 
the Loire, and can be reached by carriage from Blois 
in about the same time. 

To English people Loches may seem more interest- 
ing than any other of the castles of Touraine. Un- 
less Chinon be excepted, there is no other chateau so 
closely associated with the early history of the 
Plantagenet kings. It was the ancient home of 
the counts of Anjou, and their chief stronghold 
in the wars that they waged year after year 
against the counts of Blois. 

While Richard Coeur de Lion was away in Pales- 
tine, and his treacherous brother thought he would 
never return, John gave Loches to the French, but 
as soon as Richard was free after his imprisonment 

172 



THE CHATEAUX OF LOCHES AND CHAUMONT 173 

he laid siege to the castle and took it. It was, how- 
ever, retaken after a year's siege by Philip Augustus. 

Loches is interesting also because Charles VII. long 
lived here, and there is a tower in which dwelt Agnes 
Sorel, the one woman whom he really loved. It was 
here, doubtless, that her courage, wisdom, and patri- 
otic enthusiasm inspired Charles to go forth and com- 
plete the work which Joan of Arc had begun. The 
famous monument to Agnes Sorel is in the basement 
of this tower. It was formerly in the collegiate 
church near by, but the monks were afraid her life 
had not been pure enough to admit of her remains 
resting in so sacred a place. They did not seem to 
remember that she had endowed their monastery most 
munificently, and done many a good work for them, 
and therefore they asked Louis XI. to have her tomb 
removed from the church. That monarch, with char- 
acteristic acuteness, replied that they might move her 
body and her monument if they would give up the 
possessions they had received from her. It goes 
without saying that the tomb was not disturbed at 
that time, but later it was taken from the church and 
placed in Agnes' tower. 

The monument itself, while not a masterpiece of 
sculpture, is very simple, and most touching in its 
suggestion. It is a recumbent figure with folded 
hands in the manner so common in the mediaeval 



l74 THE CHATEAUX OF LOCHES AlSt) CHAUMONT 

days, but it is varied from the usual type by the 
introduction of two little lambs at the feet and 
two angels, quite small, but beautifully chiselled, 
who bend over the face and seem to shelter it with 
their brooding wings. Agnes Sorel must have been 
a very beautiful woman if this is a good likeness of 
her, for even although it has been in places restored 
with plaster the face is most pure and lovely. It 
seems a strange monument for one who was a 
king's mistress, but it confirms the testimony of 
history that Agnes Sorel was a very high-souled 
woman and the king's good genius in the most 
critical days of his life. 

It is not, however, the gentle Agnes who gives to 
Loches its chief historical interest. Not because she 
lived and loved here do people visit it to-day, but for 
the reason that Louis XI. had here his dungeons and 
torture chambers. These still remain, and they tell 
a tale of human cruelty which is hardly credible 
even when the eye looks upon those hideous cells 
whose mute testimony cannot be contradicted. The 
walls would be eloquent in themselves even if they 
were not covered with the written laments of many 
a prisoner who languished here for years until death 
finally came to his relief. These dungeons are in the 
older part of the castle, quite remote from Agnes' 
tower and Charles VII.'s royal apartments. Above 



THE CHATEAUX OF LOCHES AND CHAUMONT 175 

them looms up the gigantic donjon of Foiilkes Nerra, 
half-ruined but still terrible and imposing. Around 
them wind the ramparts from which rises the Tour 
Ronde — still grim and defiant as in the feudal days. 
In this tower was the principal torture chamber. It 
is now used as the prison of the town. But there 
is another place in this tower far more terrible, and 
that is the dungeon down deep below the ground 
where Louis XI. kept Cardinal Balue suspended in 
an iron cage for years, just because he told some of 
the king's secrets to Charles of Burgundy. The 
dungeon is small. It is cut out of the wall of the 
castle, but the cage that hung within it was much 
smaller yet. A man could neither sit up nor lie down 
in it. A sort of crouching posture was all it would 
permit. There is a landing on the stairs just above 
this horrible place, to which Louis XL used to come 
in order that he might see and gloat over the agonies 
of his victim. 

Philip de Commines was also imprisoned at Loches 
for a few months, but his cell is not so horrible as 
that of Cardinal Balue. It is in another tower, and 
there was light enough for him to begin writing that 
history which probably gives as fair an idea as any 
of the character of Louis XL 

Within the great space enclosed by the ramparts 
of Loches, between the dungeons and the palace, 



176 THE CHATEAUX OF LOCHES AND CHATJMONT 

stands a church — the collegiate church, it is called — 
which is thought to be one of the most remarkable 
among the churches of France built at that time. 

The peculiarity of it is that it has no roof in the 
ordinary sense of that word as applied to churches, 
for the nave is covered by four contiguous towers, 
which are like domes, or, perhaps better, lanterns 
when seen from within. I think the church more 
remarkable than beautiful. It is a most interesting 
study for an architect, but to the ordinary traveller 
it is not especially attractive. 

In spite of the great historic interest of Loches, it 
is not a very pleasant place to visit. All that there 
is of beauty of architecture, all the picturesqueness 
of the houses with their high-pitched roofs climbing 
up the hill to get as near the protecting castle as 
possible, cannot efface the principal impression of 
the place which comes from the horrors of its dun- 
geons. It is a scene of crime and cruelty, of untold 
agony, of tragedies almost beyond belief. 

One breathes freer on passing out of its stern gate 
and looking up at the blue sky the poor prisoners 
could not see. As he sees again the sunshine, and 
the fair fields and vineyards, he hopes the days of 
the hideous tortures of the dungeons he has just left 
are past, never to return. 

How different the thought of charming Chaumont, 



THE CHATEAUX OF LOCHES AND CHAUMONT 177 

one of the fairest feudal castles in the world. ! Any- 
detailed description of such a place would not be of 
much use — only a suggestion is needed to awaken 
interest in it. 

This was the home of Georges d'Amboise, the car- 
dinal, Louis XII. 's great minister — the predecessor 
of Richelieu and Mazarin. Here is his cardinal's hat 
carved in stone over the door with Louis XIL's 
porcupine underneath it, and again, in the chapel 
there is the throne he sat on, and the very famous 
hat itself that Caesar Borgia brought all the way 
from Italy is hanging there over the throne just 
below a great stained glass window, and the car- 
dinal's cushions to sit on and to kneel on are all 
there. Yes, everything is ready for him, and when 
he comes in he will sit there on the throne, and 
the hat will be placed on his head. Afterward 
Catherine de' Medici and her ladies will enter the 
gallery of the chapel by the private door, and there 
they will sit on the cushioned seats with the high 
carved backs, and hear mass, and doubtless partici- 
pate in the ceremony with the utmost appearance, at 
least, of piety. 

In the rooms below are many things that make it 
sure this must have been Catherine de' Medici's home 
sometimes. Here is the queen's bed, with its richly 
embroidered hangings and coverlid, just as it was 

27 



178 THE CHATEAUX OF LQCHES AND CHAUMONT 

when she last rose from it to kneel at the prie-dieu 
by its side. There is the wash-stand, a rather elabo- 
rate one, on the other side. Upon it are all the 
implements of the toilet of a woman of that day — 
powder-box and rouge-pot, little bottles for essences 
and perfumes, a beautiful basin and pitcher, — every- 
thing in fact that was needed for this charming 
queen-mother's toilet. They are all in perfect order. 
Catherine de' Medici might use them now just as 
well as before, if her sphere of usefulness had not 
been changed from this world to another. 

There cannot be any doubt that this was her room, 
when one sees it connects with an apartment used by 
the astrologer, Ruggieri. There is a portrait of the 
Italian astrologer in this room. There is his bed, — 
not quite so splendid nor so wide as the queen's, but 
good enough for any one. There was no prie-dieu 
beside it. He preferred, perhaps, to consult the stars. 

There is a door opening from his room which gives 
entrance to the winding stone staircase that leads 
to the tower-top. Up this staircase the queen and 
the astrologer often went, that they might study the 
heavens together, and by their teaching decide the 
fate of many a poor mortal. 

There is splendid carved furniture. There are 
coffers in which the treasures were kept, — exquisite 
works of Italian art. All these things tell that the 



THE CHATEAUX OF LOCHES AND CHAUMONT 179 

Italian queen lived here. The mistress of Catherine's 
husband, Henry II., Diane de Poitiers, lived here too 
after the king had died and Catherine had succeeded 
in stealing Chenonceaux from the royal favorite. 

This chateau of Chaumont does not seem to-day 
as if it could have become the home of anybody, 
even if that person were the Duke de Broglie, 
who now lives there. Why, Voltaire was here ! 
Georges Sand walked on these terraces, and wrote, 
perhaps, even in the Italian queen's room. The 
place was once a fortress. There was a moat. There 
are towers, with their loopholes for archers and 
arquebusiers, and the machicoulis, through which 
to pour down the boiling oil. There are ramparts. 

The description of old Chaumont might be inter- 
esting, but what it is to-day is far more interesting, 
because it has become a home, — one of the most 
beautiful in France. Its white towers, with their 
blue-gray conical tops, rise from the crest of a hill 
far above the majestic Loire, broad and placid, 
moving on with great dignity and power among 
its meadows and vineyards and beneath the many 
arches of its bridges. 

The towers are embowered in most luxuriant foli- 
age. Trees climb up the hillside, and they even 
reach the castle. They surround it with living 
green. Sometimes when they have almost gained 



180 THE CHATEAUX OF LOCHES AND CHAUMONT 

the top they seem to try to vie in height with the 
old white towers themselves. This they cannot do, 
but the mingling of their varied greens with the white 
and the blue-gray of the masonry is an artist's dream. 

Nevertheless, it is not so romantic as the terraces 
that overlook the river, for about these the vines 
that love to climb have full sway. The ivy and 
the honeysuckle, the clinging roses, even the mosses 
and the ferns have claimed these ancient balustrades 
for their own. They embrace and caress the old 
stones. They almost hide them ; but they do not 
dare lift their flowers, nor even their leaves and 
tendrils, high enough to shut out the Loire, a shin- 
ing silver background for their beauties of color and 
of form, as one looks down from the terrace. 

A little lower down is the " lovers' walk," that 
winds along the hillside, up and down, half hidden 
by trees and shrubs, gay with flowers, and with 
glimpses here and there of emerald turf, and some- 
times of a pointed roof or tower far above, or a rip- 
ple of sun-sparkled water far below, or of a bridge 
that crosses the water so charmingly lighted. 

This, then, is something of what Chaumont is to- 
day, but it is only a suggestion. The historian must 
tell what it used to be. Its charm as a home will be 
remembered even if all the momentous facts in its 
history are quite forgotten. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE CHATEAUX OF AMBOISE AND CHAMBORD 

Amboise is one of the most interesting of the 
Touraine castles. Its exterior is most imposing, 
and its situation is charming; for it is on the crest 
of a hill beside the Loire, just at a point where a 
large island divides that majestic stream into two 
parts, thus adding an element of picturesqueness to 
the power and beauty of the river's movement. Its 
vast towers make it one of the most singular of 
all these chateaux. They rise almost from the level 
of the river to the top of the hill. The walls and 
buildings between the towers are dignified, and their 
turrets and pinnacled windows make a beautiful sky 
line as one looks up toward the castle from the 
banks of the Loire. 

Although Amboise is so beautiful, it is, neverthe- 
less, haunted, as Loches is, by some spirit that tells of 
the human agony there endured. It was here that 
the Huguenots were massacred after the conspiracy 
of La Renaudie and his followers against the Guises 

181 



182 THE CHATEAUX OF AMBOISE AND CHAMBOED 

had been discovered and frustrated. Catherine de' 
Medici, with her son, Francis II., and her other 
sons who afterwards became Charles IX., and Henry 
III,, with her ladies in waiting and the young and 
beautiful Mary, Queen of Scots, all in full court 
dress, witnessed this horrible butchery from a balcony 
of the castle that faces the Loire. Above this balcony 
is another one, with an iron railing on which were 
placed the heads of the Huguenot chieftains. 

It seems as if the incredibly wicked Italian queen 
simply waded in blood during the whole time of her 
baleful power in France. Once only, and then it 
was on her death-bed, she tried to stop the shedding 
of blood; but that scene belongs to the history of 
Blois. 

An immense scaffold was built in an open square 
below the castle of Amboise, between the rock on 
which it stands and the bank of the Loire. The 
principal men among the Huguenots were led up 
hither together. They all sang in unison Clement 
Marot's translation of the psalm, " God be merciful 
to us and bless us." As the heads fell off one by 
one, the psalm grew fainter and fainter; but the 
last one kept on singing until his turn came to die. 
The headsman grew weary with his work. His axe 
was blunted, and at last he had to turn over the 
victims still left to other executioners. Many of 



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^mmm\ 




.J 



DOOR OF THE CHAPEL OF AMBOISE 



THE CHATEAUX OP AMBOISE AND CHAMBORD 183 

the bodies were thrown into the Loire ; but still 
there were so many of the killed about the streets, 
and even in the castle, that the court was obliged 
to leave Amboise on account of the stench that came 
from the unburied dead. 

Such was one scene that Mary Stuart looked upon 
during her short married life with the young king, 
Francis II. She was to see many another scene of 
blood ; but it is said that this one haunted her even 
to her dying day. She could not get rid of the 
thought of it even when she was preparing herself 
to die as the Huguenots died at Amboise. 

Although this is the most striking and terrible 
page in its history, Amboise is really more closely 
connected with Charles VIII. than with any other 
king. He built a large part of it. To him is due 
the exquisite chapel, — one of the most beautiful 
examples of florid Gothic in the world, — which he 
built for his queen, Anne of Brittany, and dedicated 
to St. Hubert. The bas-relief over the door is of 
that familiar subject, — the saint meeting in the 
wood the stag with the miraculous cross between 
his horns. This is the work of Italian artists whom 
Charles VIII. brought back from Italy. The carv- 
ings within the little chapel are so exquisitely deli- 
cate that it seems as if the most dainty white lace, 
turned to cream-color by age, had been hung about 



184 THE CHATEAUX OF AMBOISE AND CHAMBORD 

the walls. So delightful is the little chapel on the 
edge of the terrace, with flowers and trees about 
it, that one almost forgets all about the big castle. 

The castle, however, is a most interesting build- 
ing, and in some ways quite unique. The towers 
and the chapel are not like those of any other cha- 
teau in Touraine. The great tower that is seen 
from the river-side is very famous, because it has 
within it an inclined plane which can be used for 
horses and even carriages. This leads from the level 
of the river to the apartments of the king on the 
hill-top. The noble people dismounted from their 
horses at the very doors of the rooms they were to 
occupy. There is another tower, similar to this one, 
at the farther end of the castle. 

King Charles VIII. undertook these great works 
at Amboise partly to distract his mind from the 
grief which came upon him when his son died. 
This boy and his brother, the two children of 
Anne of Brittany, were buried in the cathedral of 
Tours, where their beautiful monument still remains. 
Charles's towers at Amboise became renowned all 
over Europe. Many a great king and warrior, many 
a lovely dame, ascended these inclined planes and 
dismounted in the courtyard of the castle. Among 
them were Charles V. of Spain, Francis I., Mary 
Queen of Scots, Catherine de' Medici, — most of 



THE CHItEAUX of AMBOISE AND CHAMBOED 185 

the great people of France and many from the 
other kingdoms of Europe. 

Charles VIII. at the time when he built Amboise 
was fonder of his building than anything else. He 
was so much engrossed in it that he wished to watch 
the workmen at their work as much as he could. 
In going to superintend their labors one day, he 
passed hastily under a very low, arched gateway that 
was between his private stairway and the ramparts. 
He struck his head against the stone arch and died 
a few hours afterwards from the effect of the blow. 

If the interior of Amboise were as well preserved 
or as admirably restored as that of Blois it would 
certainly be one of the most interesting in all Tou- 
raine — but, unfortunately, this is not the case. The 
Comte de Paris, who owned the place, attempted to 
restore it, but succeeded only partly because of his 
banishment from France. 

There is very little now to see within the castle, 
but the exterior is so fine, and the historical associa- 
tions are so numerous, that Amboise will always be 
a favorite resort of the tourist who loves noble Gothic 
architecture, and cares to be in a place where some 
of the most interesting events in French history 
occurred. 

Of Chambord I cannot speak with enthusiasm, 
although it is one of the largest of all the chsiteaux 



186 THE CHATEAUX OF AMBOISE AITD CHAMBOED 

of this region. Francis I., for some reason or other, 
became tired of his work at Blois. It is astonishing 
that it could have been possible to become wearied 
with work at such a castle as Blois. It is said that 
if Francis had put the money he spent in building 
Chambord into finishing Blois, there never would have 
been a Versailles, because Blois would have been the 
permanent home of the French kings when they were 
not at Paris. Blois was left incomplete, and Chambord 
was built. The situation of this chateau is enough to 
make it less beautiful than the others even if it were in 
itself beautiful. Francis chose this place for his castle 
probably because of his fondness for hunting. On the 
site of Chambord was once a hunting-lodge to which 
the king often resorted. There is nothing of interest 
in the country immediately about this chateau now, 
but it must have been different when there was a 
great forest there. It may be that the king thought 
the place where he had found such pleasure in his 
sport would be always a charming place in which to 
dwell, but when the forest disappeared the charm 
was gone. 

Chambord itself is not beautiful enough to dis- 
pense with the beauty of the forest trees that once 
were about it. The building is deplorably top-heavy. 
There are too many chimneys and they are too much 
ornamented. The upper and lower parts of the struct- 



THE CHATEAUX OF AMBOISE AND CHAMBOKD 187 

ure do not harmonize. When there was a moat 
about it the reflection in the water may have helped 
it, and given a different impression from that of 
to-day ; but even then it could not have been a 
harmonious building. 

The most remarkable part of it is the staircase, 
which is very large and surmounted by a lantern of 
great size, though not of great beauty. This stair- 
case is certainly most peculiar, even if it is not 
beautiful. There are two spiral stone stairways in 
it, arranged in such a way that people may ascend 
side by side and yet hardly see each other. The 
two stairways are separated by a slight difference 
of level, and one is inside the other. The stone 
supports, which are very massive, come between the 
two, and though the openings are many and large 
they are so arranged that through them very little is 
to be seen of one staircase from the other one. The 
effect is very curious, but it is far from being agree- 
able or artistic. 

Nor is the chateau very interesting in its sugges- 
tions about history. Francis I. was here a good deal, 
but not in the most important days of his life. Louis 
XIV. was here too, but he seems to have been dread- 
fully bored at Chambord, and a good deal troubled 
about the quarrels of some of his mistresses. Madame 
de Montespan especially annoyed him here. 



188 THE chItbaux of amboise and chambokd 

The most interesting person whose life is associ- 
ated with Chambord is the Mar^chal de Saxe, 
to whom the place was given by Louis XV. The 
hero of Fontenoy lived here for some time in 
great enjoyment of his luxurious surroundings; and 
he amused himself with reviews of troops and their 
manoeuvres, which he directed from a balcony at the 
back of the palace. His excesses would soon have 
killed him if the Prince of Conti had not given him 
a mortal wound in a duel fought in the woods near 
the chateau. 

At Chambord Moli^re's "Le Bourgeois Gentil- 
homme " was first produced before the court and 
the courtiers. Its success was immediate. There 
must have been a fine theatre here at that time in 
one of the halls that opens toward the great central 
staircase. Nothing is left of it now but the outer 
walls and the windows. 

The vast chateau of Chambord is not without some 
interest, either of history or architecture, but it is 
far inferior in charm to any other of the important 
castles of Touraine. 

On the way back to Blois, one may, if he pleases, 
visit two of the smaller chateaux, — Cheverny and 
Beauregard. The former belonged to a minister of 
Henry IV. It contains some very fine old armor, 
and there is a bedroom in it once occupied by Ki"g 



THE CHATEAUX OF AMBOISB AND CHAMBORD 189 

Henry of Navarre. It is now nearly the same as it 
was in his time. There are also in this chateau 
some good pictures. The best of them are portraits. 
The subject of one is Cosmo de' Medici as a boy. 
Some think Van Dyck was the painter. Others 
ascribe it to Titian. It is a very fine portrait, worthy 
of either of the great men who may have painted it. 

At Beauregard the chief interest is a very large 
gallery, the walls of which are entirely covered with 
so-called portraits of the kings and queens, the 
soldiers, statesmen, and the court beauties of Europe 
from 1400 to 1650. The pictures are so bad that 
it is hard to believe they can be likenesses, but 
nevertheless they are interesting because of their 
historical significance, even if only by way of 
suggestion. 

From this chateau the drive back to Blois is charm- 
ing. It leads through the vast forest where lords 
and ladies used to hunt with hawk and hound, and 
at last it comes again to the. Loire, — the stream that 
seems ta know all the secrets of the Touraine castles 
and yet remain calm and majestic. 



CHAPTER XXI 

ROMAN AND CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS AT NIMES AND 
AELES 

NlMES is now a busy French city, but it was once 
a Roman place. The early name of it was Nemau- 
sus. The Roman historians say little about it for 
some reason not yet fully understood, because it 
must have been a very important city in the western 
part of Rome's empire. Its amphitheatre is enough 
to show that it was large and populous, and its 
geographical situation easily explains its importance, 
for it was on the road from Rome to Spain. 

The amphitheatre is in some ways even more inter- 
esting than the Colosseum at Rome. Its exterior 
is much better preserved. A large part of this is 
intact, even to the cornice where were the pierced 
stones in which were inserted the poles that were 
to hold up the awning that was spread over the seats 
of the spectators. It is not so high as the Colosseum. 
There are only two tiers of arches, but these are so 
lofty that they give the building an impression of 

190 



MONUMENTS AT nImES AND ARLES 191 

great heiglit, and they are so massive that they 
speak in no uncertain tone of the strength of that 
Roman Empire of whose greatness they formed a 
part. One may walk all around the building under 
these vast arches, and it is possible once more to 
go ail about it under the arches of the second tier. 
From here the view of the arena and the encircling 
seats is most fascinating. Rome seems to live again 
in this town of southern France. 

The places of worship not only of the Romans but 
of the Greeks can well be studied at Nimes. They 
offer a most interesting contrast to the Christian 
buildings, and it is well to study them with that 
thought in mind. 

It is but a little way from the great arena of 
Nimes to the Maison Carrie. What a pity they 
have given it a French name ! It is not in the least 
French. It is Greek. Although it has come down 
from the days of Antoninus Pius, and Marcus 
Aurelius and Lucius Verus had something to do 
with the building of it, it is, nevertheless, distinctly 
Greek. Probably it was built by Greeks who came 
as colonists to many places in the Roman Empire 
after their own country had yielded to the irresist- 
ible power of the legions. Here at Nimes they 
dreamed of the Acropolis as the Jews at Babylon 
did of Solomon's temple, but here they had the 



192 MONUMENTS AT NIMES AND AKLES 

opportunity, which must have been most delightful 
to them, of reproducing one of their own Athenian 
temples. The building is a gem of architecture. It 
is small, as the Greek temples always were, but it is 
nearly perfect in harmony of form and line. The 
style is Corinthian. The columns of the peristyle 
are very lofty, and their capitals most exquisitely 
carved with that somewhat florid but deliciously 
chastened ornamentation which marks the best 
period of the Corinthian work. How the building 
has been preserved in its present almost perfect 
form is hard to tell. It was at first a temple of the 
Greeks ; then for a little time it was a Christian 
church; afterward it became a stable, and the owner 
of it at that time pared away the bases of the 
columns a little in order to allow his carts to pass. 
This seems to have been the worst injury the build- 
ing has suffered. Afterward it became part of an 
Augustinian convent, and was used as a burial-place. 
Still later a tribunal of the Revolution held its 
sittings here. Another change, and it became a 
storehouse for corn, and last of all it was a museum, 
and a museum it still is. 

This temple is strongly contrasted in style with 
the Nymphseum, once called the temple of Diana, 
which is close beside the ancient baths. This is 
a truly Roman building with the prevailing round 



MONUMENTS AT N^MES AND AELES 193 

arch so characteristic of that style of architecture. 
It was here that those who had enjoyed their bath 
in the pure waters came to worship the nymphs of 
the stream and of the fountain that springs from the 
hill above it. 

This most interesting building, though not so well 
preserved as the Maison Carrde, is, nevertheless, one 
of the most charming of the Roman monuments to 
be found outside of Rome itself. It has not been 
restored, and is partly in ruins, but remains almost 
exactly as it was more than sixteen centuries ago. 
The worship, the architecture, and the art of Rome 
can well be studied here. The noble cathedral of 
Carcassonne is not far from the Maison Carree and 
the Nymphseum. The contrast tells its own tale as to 
the difference in the spirit of worship between the 
Roman and the Christian days. 

It was not in the temples that the chief glory of 
Roman architecture was to be found. Not far from 
Nimes is a monument that speaks as truly as any 
other of the power and the splendor of this wonder- 
ful people. The Pont du Gard is one of the most 
impressive of all Roman structures in the Avorld. 
The arena at Nemausus needed water. Sometimes 
they flooded it, and had mimic naval battles as in . all 
Roman amphitheatres of importance. This water 
had to be brought from a long distance and carried 



194 MONUMENTS AT NIMES AND ARLES 

over the hills and through the valleys by an aque- 
duct which was more than thirty miles long. 

It is nearly fifteen miles from Nimes to the Pont 
du Gard, but one scarcely tires of the long drive be- 
cause the road itself is a Roman monument. Broad, 
smooth, majestic, it seems to flow on like some grand 
river that pays no heed to mountain, cliff, or any other 
obstacle, but quietly, albeit irresistibly, pursues its 
own course and eventually attains its own ends. It 
is indeed suggestive of the onward march of Rome. 
Even to-day it would well afford passage for an army. 

The scenery of this long drive is not interesting. 
There are olive orchards so large and so numerous 
that they become monotonous, and there are almost 
as many vineyards which are not very picturesque. 
The peasants do not make such pictures as those 
about Pau. The piercing power of the mistral forces 
them to wrap themselves up very closely. Instead 
of the pretty beretta they wear often a fur cap 
which is quite commonplace. But there are towers 
on the hills, very ancient, perhaps Roman, and there 
are churches here and there, and convents among the 
olive trees. There are two or three villages, but 
they have a desolate, forsaken look quite different 
from most little towns in France. They should 
not look like this in the midst of such abundant 
plenty — but they do. 



MONUMENTS AT nImES AND AKLBS 195 

On nearing the Pont du Gard tlie aspect of the 
country suddenly changes. It is no longer smiling 
and fertile, but forbidding because of rocks, and 
cliffs, and wild, lonesome spaces where no habita- 
tions are. 

Suddenly on turning from the main road and 
entering a deep gorge through which the river flows, 
the great bridge is seen. The first sight of it is an 
impression never to be forgotten. From one moun- 
tain to the other, across the stream and the jagged 
rocks on either side, it stretches. Its towering arches 
— three tiers of them — seem almost to touch the 
sky. The first thought about this wonderful struct- 
ure is of its majesty, the next of its time-defying 
strength. How many times in all the centuries of 
its life have the lightning and the wind sought to 
attack it ! How many times have the floods sought 
to undermine its foundations, and all without avail, 
for it still stands there. It was built, as it is said, 
by Marcus Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus, 
nineteen years before Christ was born. Here it 
stands to-day, almost intact. If man had not touched 
it, it would be nearly as it was upon the day when it 
was completed. The elements have had little per- 
ceptible effect upon it. 

Here is the restless energy of the Roman people, 
embodied in stone. They wished water for their 



196 MONUMENTS AT NIMES AND ARLES 

games at Nemausus, and no physical obstacle was to 
stand in the way of the accomplishment of their 
wishes. They cared not for the enormous expense 
of such a structure. The world was theirs. Why 
should they care ? They thought the world was 
always to be their world, and therefore they built 
what was meant to last as long as the very moun- 
tains themselves. 

But what an extraordinary method of construction 
for a building that was to last forever ! The huge 
blocks of stone that form these gigantic arches are 
fitted together without a particle of mortar or 
cement. They are simply close-joined, and so accu- 
rately that there is no space between them anywhere, 
and they support one another according to the scien- 
tific principle of the arch. 

How these stones were raised to the dizzy height 
of one hundred and sixty feet, how they were held 
in place in the central arch of the second tier whose 
span is seventy feet, no man understands fully to-day. 
This arch — one of the grandest and most marvellous 
in existence — is so broad and so high that the 
whole Maison Carrie, the Greek temple, could be 
passed through it without touching anywhere. The 
arches of the first tier that rise from the rocks by the 
river are lower and much more massive. Those of 
the second tier spring upward with a tremendous 



MONUMEISTTS AT nJmES AND ABLES 19T 

leap, and in spite of their extreme solidity they pro- 
duce an effect of almost aerial lightness as they stand 
out against the sky. The upper arches are much 
more numerous and a great deal smaller. These 
directly supported the aqueduct itself. Their effect 
architecturally is much like that of a cornice, or some 
other ornamental work crowning the immense struct- 
ure beneath. Mounting to the top and crossing the 
bridge through the viaduct there are grand views of 
the river and the wild gorge, and the construction 
of the whole bridge becomes more and more wonder- 
ful the nearer one approaches it. 

The most marvellous view of all is to be had on 
the river-bank on the other side from that where the 
bridge is first seen in coming from Nimes. If the 
sun is setting it makes this Roman bridge golden, 
glorious, splendid, as if it were touched by the 
very spirit of Rome. Yellow arch upon yellow 
arch rises against the dazzling blue of the sky. 
Some of them frame in clouds of deep gray or pearly 
white. Each makes its own picture, and all of them 
strongly holding hand in hand seem even able to 
bind the wild mountains together and keep them 
captive, quite stilled by a power that seems almost 
as great as their own. It is trul}'^ a most suggestive 
monument to the power of the Imperial city. 
Strength, majesty, the golden glow in the hour of 



198 MONUMENTS AT NIMBS AND AELBS 

sunset — what better can express the spirit of the 
Roman Empire? 

Aries has been called a Greek city, as contrasted 
with Nimes, which is Roman in its spirit. Neverthe- 
less, there is an amphitheatre here which much re- 
sembles that at Nimes, though it is not so well 
preserved. In the Middle Ages this great building 
was almost a town in itself. Every arch was made 
into a house. It was only necessary to fill up the 
opening. The roof was already there. With a low 
doorway and a window, the mansion was complete. 
Houses were built also within, where the seats for- 
merly were. Some one in the feudal days caught the 
idea that such a place must have been meant for a 
fortress and therefore four great square towers were 
built on the top of the arches of Aries' arena and it 
became a mediaeval stronghold. In most cities of 
these days the houses clung as closely as they could 
to the castle, but here there was a more intimate 
relation still, for they were a part of the fort itself and 
many were within its walls. 

The Greek spirit of Aries is more felt in the thea- 
tre than anywhere else. This theatre was an im- 
mense one. It is said that sixteen thousand people 
could be seated in it. Its size suggests rather Rome 
than Greece, but the two columns that still remain 
of the proscenium are Greek indeed. The whole 



MONUMENTS AT NIMES AND AELES 199 

row of them, when complete with cornice above, 
must have been a marvel of beauty. There is much 
to be studied here, because so many of the details are 
preserved that it is quite possible to reconstruct in 
the mind the whole building as it used to be. 

Nevertheless, there is nothing else at Aries com- 
parable in beauty for one moment to the cloisters of 
St. Trophimus. Here are four sides of a cloistered 
court, and each one represents the art of a century, 
the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth, and 
there are also Roman and Grecian pillars and pilas- 
ters used in the construction of this wonderful place. 
In some way or other the different styles, the hetero- 
geneous materials, are joined together in such wise 
that they form one of the most beautiful cloistered 
courts in the world. There is one more lovely by the 
church of St. John at Toledo. That at Mont St. 
Michel is also a most wonderful work of Gothic art, 
but apart from these two I know of none more 
exquisite than this. The Romanesque and the 
Gothic builder seem here to strive together in a 
generous emulation, each seeking for what is most 
artistic. The sculptures of the different capitals 
are most interesting. They are so numerous, so 
varied, that it would need almost a volume to 
describe them in detail. The general effect of them 
is one of an almost incredible richness. 



200 MONUMENTS AT nImES AND AELES 

To find the beauty at Aries one must come to 
these cloisters. The arena and the theatre, impres- 
sive, interesting as they are, are not comparable in 
charm to this work of Christian art, full of thought, 
inspired by a most devoted, religious spirit, and yet 
telling of the poetry of this sunny land of Provence. 



CHAPTER XXII 

BOTTRGES 

In the very old Frencli towns it is natural to 
expect some picturesqueness of architecture, some 
quaintness not to be found in modern cities. This 
is, nevertheless, not the case except in certain 
places. There are streets, as at Dinan and Blois, 
where the buildings of the olden time remain, 
and these streets are most interesting. There are 
some parts of Bourges also where there are houses 
with pointed gables and overhanging eaves. These 
are charming; but apart from them the streets of 
the town are not of great interest. They ought to 
be to counteract the effect of the dirt and the bad 
smells all about, but the city has been largely mod- 
ernized in its buildings, though not in its drainage. 

The principal glory of Bourges is its cathedral. 
The house of Jacques Coeur, now the Palais de 
Justice, comes next in interest, and then comes the 
home of the celebrated lawyer, Cujas, now a museum. 
These three buildings are quite enough to make any 
town famous, even if there were nothing else. 

201 



202 BOUEGES 

The cathedral of Bourges is one of the most pecu- 
liar in France, because it has no transepts. It is also 
one of the most remarkable in the number and variety 
of its stained glass windows, many of which are very 
ancient. 

The aim of the French Gothic cathedral builders 
has usually been to produce a profound impression 
with their fagades. At Amiens, at Rouen, at Notre 
Dame, even at Tours, this effect has been successfully 
produced, but such is not the case at Bourges. The 
fa9ade is sadly lacking in harmony. The towers are 
quite dissimilar in style. The early one at the right 
is fine twelfth-century Gothic, but it is unfinished, 
hardly rising above the level of the roof. It is, more- 
over, marred by a curious building placed against the 
side of it, the use of which I cannot understand, 
which forces itself most unpleasantly into the general 
contour of the facade with which it really has noth- 
ing whatever to do. The other tower, called the 
" butter tower," because built by money paid for in- 
dulgences to eat butter in Lent, is much higher, but 
it is bad in style, with round arches, and florid orna- 
mentation quite out of keeping with true Gothic 
work. Beside all this the architect wished an im- 
mense window at the west end of his church, and 
therefore he had to use a number of heavy buttresses 
to support his wall and roof. These break up the 




THE CATHEDRAL OF BOURGES 



BOURGES 203 

horizontal lines of the fagade, and do not substitute 
any beauty of the perpendicular manner of construc- 
tion because they are not ornamented, and do not 
terminate in exquisite pinnacles, gradually diminish- 
ing in size, as is the case at Tours. 

But after this first disappointment as to the gen- 
eral effect, comes a thrill of wonder and admiration 
for the details. There are five portals — all most 
profusely ornamented with sculpture. The richness, 
delicacy, and expressiveness of this work can hardly 
be surpassed in the carvings of any cathedral fagade 
in France. The arrangement and the subjects are 
about the same as at Amiens, Notre Dame, and Tours. 
There was a tradition about this that came from the 
Norman days before the Gothic builder began his 
work. Here, however, there is a charm in the exe- 
cution so marked as plainly to tell that some really 
great sculptor did this carving. Nobody knows his 
name. Nobody knows who built the cathedral — but 
this is often the case in Gothic buildings. If what 
the artist did could live, he himself seems to have 
cared little whether his name would live in fame. 
There are carvings on the six arches of the central 
portal of Bourges cathedral worthy of a place even in 
the cloisters of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo. 
Figures of angels and of saints, foliage of vines and 
trees, cluster about these lofty arches in a way most 



204 BOTJRGES 

fascinating, full of the grace and simplicity of the 
highest art. ' * 

This central portal is so wonderful that it should 
be spoken of more in detail. Each arch has its pro- 
cession of figures from the top of the supporting 
column to the keystone, and each figure has a carved 
canop}'- above it as though it were in a shrine. There 
are seventy-six of these figures. The inner arch, 
nearest the central figure of the Christ, and the one 
next to it are given to the angels, the heavenly choir 
who sing the Saviour's praise. Then come the apos- 
tles, then the martyrs, each with his palm branch, 
and then the saints. On the outermost arch are the 
kings of Israel. These had a nobler place in the 
fa9ade of Amiens, but even placed as they are here 
they are fine and full of expression. The central 
subject in the tympanum is the best of all from the 
artist's point of view. In the lower panel the dead 
are lifting the stones from their graves. The good 
arise with folded hands and meek expression. The 
wicked are more violent in action, but as works of 
sculpture they are more interesting because the anat- 
omy is wonderfully studied considering its very early 
date. On one side of the next panel above the good 
are being led to Paradise. St. Peter has his arms full 
of little children whom he holds in a fold of his robe. 
The grown-up good people, with a most self-satisfied 



BOUEGES 205 

smirk, are walking toward the saint. But here, as 
below, the action, the real life of the figures is on the 
side of the wicked, who are being plunged by most 
extraordinary devils into a cauldron which two imps 
are heating by blowing the fire beneath it. Between 
the two groups an angel holds the scales of justice, 
and with one hand draws to him a little child, a 
lovely girl, whom a hideous devil is trying to seize. 
Above, in the upper panel, is the Christ with attend- 
ant saints and angels. Though the subject has been 
so often treated, no sculptor of the early French 
cathedrals has given to it more expressiveness and 
finish in detail. The groups in the other four por- 
tals and their arches are very remarkable also, but 
not so well preserved. 

These five portals are the glory of the exterior of 
Bourges cathedral. Apart from them, its impression 
is that of an immense mass of stone, not harmonious 
and not beautiful. The buttresses are too numerous 
and not light enough. They interfere with each 
other and greatly mar the general effect. 

On entering the church, the first impression is of 
immense length and height. There is nothing to 
interfere with the vista from one end to the other — 
not a choir screen, not a break of crossing transepts. 
The window of the Lady Chapel seems in some dim 
distance not accurately to be measured in the mind. 



206 BOUEGES 

The columns rise to a great height; above them is 
a triforium, above that is the clerestory, above that 
again is the vaulted roof. So it is from end to end 
of the great church. 

Then comes a feeling of disappointment. The 
columns of the nave are too high and too thin. 
Their capitals are too small, and do not project 
enough. The triforium has not been allowed suf- 
ficient space and seems too low, nor is it beautiful 
in its architecture. The windows far above are 
beautiful, but they would have been better if they 
had been brought lower down. Therefore, the 
lover of architecture, who has come to Bourges, 
stands in the nave, troubled in his mind, wonder- 
ing why a church should be so famous that has 
such glaring faults. If he turns away with such 
an impression, he makes a great mistake. Let him 
step into the aisles. There are two of them on 
each side. Let him go there when the morning 
sun is illuminating the stained windows. 

There are few more inspiring views in all Gothic 
architecture. The outer aisle is low, but of most 
magnificent construction, — great piers with clus- 
tered columns supporting a vaulted roof quite in 
harmony with their lines and their strength, and 
chapels at the side luminous with the light that 
comes softened through the glass with its infinite 



BOURGES 207 

variety of color. But there is another aisle more 
than twice as high as the outer one, — very narrow, 
very lofty. It stretches away clear to the end of the 
church and bends around the choir back of the high 
altar. At the end of it glows a window, red as a 
ruby. At the end of the outer one is the blue of 
a sapphire in another window. To stand by the 
immense columns near the portal and look upon 
these two aisles at once is like opening some 
mediaeval romance. 

This is not all it suggests. The procession of the 
low aisle to the higher, and thence to the towering 
nave, seems to lead from the privacy of the chapels 
that are still without the lower aisle to the full light 
of the church. From the private prayer and the 
confessional, the worshipper is led by the very spirit 
of the building to the great congregation, the high 
altar, and the mass. 

In the aisles is the beauty of Bourges cathedral, 
and in the stained glass windows, too; for these are 
no less wonderful than those of Chartres, and even 
more interesting historically. 

The crypt is a most noble structure — one of the 
finest in Europe. Here are some remarkable monu- 
ments, among them an effigy of the Duke de Berri, 
called the Magnificent, who was nearly related to 
Charles VII. 



208 BOURGES 

There are not many monuments in the church. 
There is nothing to tell that Louis XI., who was born 
at Bourges, was baptized in this cathedral. That 
king whose dungeons are at Loches, whose hangman 
lived hard by his castle of Plessis-les-Tours, whose 
ability humbled the nobles and made France a king- 
dom, when he was a little innocent child was brought 
into this towering church. The light of its glorious 
windows shone upon him, and the priest put the 
holy water and the consecrated oil upon his brow, 
and signed him with the sign of the cross. 

Here, too, Charles VII. came when he was only 
" Le Roi de Bourges " before Joan of Arc had 
delivered him from the English. Perhaps he even 
dared to worship here after his craven spirit had let 
her be burnt at the stake without one attempt to 
rescue her. Perhaps he even came here to pray 
after his dastardly treatment of his noble minister of 
finance, Jacques Coeur, who is far more the hero of 
Bourges than the king who caused his banishment 
and stole his money. 

Jacques Coeur built a chapel in the cathedral. It 
is now the sacristy. It must have been very beauti- 
ful in his day, but now it is filled with woodwork of 
a much later date which is neither interesting nor 
beautiful. 

There is, however, a monument in Bourges to this 



BOURGBS 209 

famous mail, and that is his house. It is called a 
house; it must have been a palace. Now it is the 
Palais de Justice. The courts are here from the 
Justice of the Peace up to the Court of Appeals. 
Strange that justice should have come to take up its 
abode in the house of one condemned by the courts 
with such shameful injustice at the command of the 
king, and by the wish of his courtiers. 

The house is built partly upon the old Roman 
walls, and two of the Roman towers are incorporated 
in it. From that side it seems an immense fortified 
place and has the cone-topped towers that mark the 
early French architecture long before the Renas- 
cence. But the other side is the one really charac- 
teristic of the building as architects knew it. This 
is a most beautiful specimen of early Renascence 
architecture, for while it is not harmonious in style 
there are exquisite touches in it. The turret at the 
left of the portal is a rarely graceful work of this 
period. It has the merit of not being too profusely 
ornamented, while it has a great deal of the richness 
so characteristic of this style. 

The portal is even more beautiful. In the pro- 
jecting balcony above it was once a statue of 
Charles VII. It is hardly to be regretted that this 
was destroyed at the time of the Revolution. It is 
to be deeply regretted, however, that the statue of 



210 BOURGBS 

Jacques Cceur himself, which was in a similar bal- 
cony on the inner side of the portal, was destroyed 
at the same time. True, there is a white marble 
statue of him before the house, but this is a modern 
work, and so bad that it is a great pity it should 
occupy the place it does. For this man was a great 
man. He was a conqueror in the peaceful world of 
trade. He was a statesman who managed with con- 
summate ability the finances of his country at a time 
when that country was almost overwhelmed. He 
was a patriot who placed all his wealth at the dis- 
posal of his king in the hour of need. Within the 
house are many sculptures, which tell of his domes- 
tic life. He seems to have been a man who loved 
his home, and was devotedly attached to his wife. 
Over one chimneypiece in the great hall there are 
three panels, each representing the merchant and 
his wife playing some game together. In the centre 
panel it is chess ; the others are not quite so plainly 
to be made out. 

In the many carvings of this house, other domestic 
scenes are represented. Over the kitchen entrance 
are figures of servants cleaning pans and preparing 
meats for the table. On the central tower of the 
court are many figures of those who served the 
master of the house in his home and his business; 
and there are curious palms and orange and lemon 



BOXJEGBS 211 

trees to tell of his traffic with the Orient. Jacques 
Cceur must have been something of a soldier, too, 
for his motto is, " A vaillants Coeurs rien impossible " ; 
and he must also have been religious, for his coat of 
arms consists of a heart and a shell, the latter being 
the emblem of a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. 
James. Moreover, he built a beautiful chapel in 
his home, beside the one at the cathedral. It is said 
that a man's house is in a way the expression of his 
character; and I think this is emphatically true of 
the superb, yet not too richly ornamented, mansion of 
the master-merchant of Bourges. 

It is true in some degree also of the home of 
Cujas, the great lawyer and learned professor. This 
is an admirable specimen of early Renascence archi- 
tecture. The home-feeling has largely left it, be- 
cause it is now a museum filled with very rare and 
curious things, some of them of great interest. The 
most interesting are the prie-dieu of the unfortunate 
Jeanne de Valois and a death mask of her, and the 
portraits of Jacques Coeur and his wife. The whole 
second story, which is very large, was devoted to 
the library and writing-room of the learned pro* 
fessor; and it is mostly because of the amplitude 
of these accommodations that the house can still be 
somewhat associated with the life of its occupant. 
The raftered ceilings are fine, and so are the chimney- 



212 BOUBGES 

pieces. University professors and lawyers must have 
been well paid in those days, for the whole house is 
on a scale of great magnificence, though not nearly 
so extensive as that of the merchant-prince. 

The house where Louis XI. was born is a very 
fine example of the architecture immediately pre- 
ceding the French Renascence, almost as interesting 
to an architect as either of the other great houses 
of Bourges. 

The whole impression of the place is emphatically 
a thought of medisevalism ; for it is produced by the 
overpowering size and glory of the church, the 
magnificence of the homes where the rich dwelt, and 
the narrow streets and poor houses where lived those 
not fortunate enough to be kings, ecclesiastics, 
merchant-princes, or lawyers. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE CATHEDRAL OF BHEIMS 

The cathedral of Rheims, the church of the French 
kings, dedicated to the Mother of the King of kings 
who sits in serene majesty over its portal, seems even 
among the other great cathedrals the queen of them 
all. Not even the fagade of Amiens is more im- 
pressive. There is no facade in all France, perhaps 
in all the world, so wonderful as this one. Here the 
Gothic builder has come nearer to a perfect ex- 
pression of his thought than anywhere else, if the 
apse of Amiens be excepted. Here is the most 
perfect beauty of line, the most exquisite ornament, 
always subservient to the strength of the support- 
ing parts but always aiding their power by the help 
of its beauty. In no other fagade are the towers 
pierced quite as they are here, for the lancet-windows 
in them are open to the day. There is no glass there, 
and through them can be seen the flying buttresses 
that support the roof of the nave. In Notre Dame, 
although the towers are pierced in a somewhat similar 

213 



214 THE CATHEDRAL OF RHBIMS 

way, the flying buttresses cannot be seen as here. 
This effect, unique so far as I know, becomes even 
more extraordinary when it is remembered that these 
towers were meant to be carried to nearly twice their 
present height. 

It seems almost impossible that this masonry, 
which hardly looks like masonry at all because it is 
so full of sun and air, could be able to support great 
spires above, but such was the architect's thought. 
There were to be seven spires of the church of 
Rheims ; now there are none complete as they were 
originally designed. 

The first impression of the fa9ade is so over- 
powering that it is only possible to admire it, with- 
out any attempt to study its details. For a time it 
is best to let the glorious beauty have its way, and 
the intense religious spirit of it still the thought and 
uplift the mind with its own inspiration. Here, as 
at Amiens, it is best to be silent, seeking no explana- 
tion of the parts that together join in forming this 
beautiful whole, but hoping that the spell of its 
almost inexplicable charm, its deeply religious spirit, 
will remain in the mind and in the heart always. 

After a while it is necessary to study more closely 
this fagade of the kings and the queens, that it may 
be known how this great thing has been done. All 
the meanings of it cannot be understood without 



THE CATHEDRAL OF BHEIMS 215 

study, but most of them are not very difficult to 
comprehend. The position of the kings at the 
highest part of the facade until the towers begin to 
rise from it is very significant. At Amiens their 
position was lofty enough, but here it is far nearer 
the sky line. The builder must have meant to 
suggest that the kings were indeed the divinely 
anointed, called by the Lord to rule over the people. 

The figures of these monarchs are so majestic in 
their expression, so grandly conceived, so imposing 
in form, so perfectly placed in their towering niches 
crowned by pinnacles most richly ornamented, that 
they do succeed in bringing to the mind an almost 
irresistible conviction that kings are nearer heaven 
than other people. 

This is not the most inspiring thought a church 
could give, but it was well to suggest it here over the 
entrance to the place of the coronation of the kings 
of France. By so doing, it is quite possible the 
architect meant to teach a lesson, unfortunately not 
always learned by kings, — the lesson of their respon- 
sibility to a higher ruler. 

For this reason, doubtless, the stories of David and 
of Solomon are told in the sculptures below, and 
many other stories are there told which might help 
these exalted people to know and to do their duties 
to their kingdom. In some of these sculptures there 



216 THE CATHEDEAL OP RHEIMS 

is a spirit that strongly recalls Michael Angelo's 
David, the stripling about to be a king, not knowing 
it, but full of faith in the one King. 

The beauty and the meaning of the exterior of 
Rheims cathedral are by no means confined to the 
fagade. There is a procession of saints and angels 
that goes on all about the church like the frescoes of 
Flandrin in St. Germain des Prds. There are many 
angels with outstretched wings in the pinnacled 
shrines that seem like chapels uplifted toward the 
sky, who have not gone far away from the kings — 
only far enough to guard the church in which they 
are to be crowned. They surround it on every side. 
They brood over it. They wish to protect it and to 
help those who are here consecrated to the task of 
influencing and directing the life of a great people. 
These angels are a triumph of Gothic art. The sug- 
gestion they give is poetic and religious. The long 
succession of pinnacled shrines in which they stand 
is ornamental in the highest degree, and helps more 
than anything else about it to make the side view of 
Rheims one of the most beautiful in the world. 

Not only are the kings thus uplifted and protected, 
but they are also taught their duty as Christians. 
The most prominent place in all the sculptural work 
of the fagade is given to the baptism of Clovis. The 
king is in the baptismal font — half immersed there. 



THE CATHEDEAL OF EHEIMS 217 

He is in the very centre of the upper part of the 
fagade, and directly above him rises its highest and 
most richly ornamented pinnacle. There is nothing 
in the church higher than that except the towers. 

It is St. Remy who baptizes the king. There 
are other saints about him. St. Thierry holds the 
archbishop's cross. A king who had preceded Clovis 
holds the sceptre. St. Montan has in his hands the 
royal mantle. The scales of justice are held up by 
another king, who shows them to the monarch who 
is just entering upon his work as a Christian ruler. 
Below are the soldiers in armor, who were baptized 
with their king. 

This subject was thought to be so important that 
not only does it hold the most prominent place on 
the fa9ade, but it is also repeated in smaller figures 
and a different arrangement over the portal of the 
north entrance. 

Beneath this portal is a figure of the Saviour, 
wonderful in dignity and spirituality, a veritable 
masterpiece of the sculpture of those early days. 
It should have a more prominent place than is gen- 
erally given to it in describing the sculptures of this 
exterior. The reason is that the portal at the side 
has no such prominence as that of the fagade, 
where the Madonna sits enthroned because it is 
her church. As a work of sculpture the figure of 



218 THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS 

the Saviour is far finer than that of the Virgin 
Mary. It has more of the modern spirit, the delicacy 
of touch, the intellectual quality, that were not fully 
developed until much later in French art. 

All that I have said thus far has to do with the 
exterior, nor does it nearly even suggest what ought 
to be said of that part of this royal and religiously 
inspired building. 

Within are glories harder to tell about than those 
without. The nave is one of the most perfect ever 
built by a Gothic architect. The columns, the arches 
they support, the triforium, the clerestory, are in such 
perfect relation of form, proportion, and color that 
they seem like a realized dream. But even such 
forms and colors as these are not the chief beauty 
of this interior. 

Far behind the high altar is a place whence can 
be seen the windows toward the west. In no other 
church that I know has such an effect been produced. 
The western wall seems all glass, held in place in 
some mysterious way not to be understood within the 
church. It is not meant that the supporting part 
should be seen from this side. The thought of the 
builder was that this western wall of his church, 
should be not a wall but the most magnificent glory 
of color that could possibly be attained. This has to 
do with the royal spirit of the church, for it seems 



THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS 219 

one vast collection of gems. The ruby and the 
emerald are most prominent, but the sapphire and 
the topaz have their place also. There is no re- 
production possible either in words or pictures of 
such a thing as this. Even in looking at it one 
wonders if it can be really there. 

The best place from which to see it is almost the 
very spot where stood Charles VII. to receive his 
crown, while Joan of Arc stood beside him. This 
maiden of France had truly a right to be in this 
church whose porch the Virgin guards, whose tran- 
sept is sculptured without with the story of that 
Virgin's assumption. The triumph of Joan of Arc 
hardly seems to be one that young girls would 
naturally seek, but it was the Virgin whom she saw 
in her visions at Domr^my. Now her work is done, 
and there is again a kingdom of France. When the 
crown of the land she loved had been placed on the 
king's head, it seemed to her that it would be better 
now to go back again to her sheep and her orchard 
at the old home where she had seen the visions which 
had meant so much to France. It was a most 
touching thought of truest humility, but the life 
of this inspired girl was to have its tragic end, 
and the peaceful peasant home was not to shelter 
her more. 

Many another king has been crowned here since 



220 THE CATHEDRAL OF EHEIMS 

that day. The splendor attendant on such cere- 
monies is attested by the richness of the robes in the 
sacristy, and the magnificence of the gifts given by 
the kings at the time of their coronation. Some of 
these gifts are very curious. There are relics, one 
of which seems a singularly appropriate present from 
a king of France, whose crown was not always easy 
on his head, for it is a thorn of the Saviour's crown 
of thorns. One of the kings gave a most curious 
representation of St. Ursula and her virgins in their 
ship. This is made almost entirely of silver. 

Henry II. gave a most remarkable little group of 
figures, the subject of which is the scene of the 
resurrection. The Saviour sits upon the edge of 
the tomb. His figure is of silver. The Roman 
soldier sleeps in front of the opened sepulchre. This 
is a beautifully modelled gold figure attributed to 
Benvenuto Cellini. This king had the almost 
incredible irreverence to ornament this work in 
places with the crescent, the emblem of Diane de 
Poitiers. "He did the same thing in the chapel at 
Fontainebleau. His human and spiritual loves seem 
to have been most strangely mixed together. 

Many of the treasures here were destroyed at the 
time of the Revolution, but enough remain to show 
what the custom of the French kings was at the time 
of their coronation. They gave superb robes to be 



THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS 221 

worn by the prelate who crowned them, and costly 
vessels for the service of the altar. The chasuble 
used by the prelate who crowned Louis XIV. is of 
silver and gold, ornamented by six pearls of purest 
lustre, each one of them nearly as large as the egg of 
a robin. The treasures given by Charles X. — the 
last king crowned here — are more numerous than 
any others now remaining in the sacristy. They are 
splendid, almost all of gold, but in artistic workman- 
ship they do not equal those of the earlier centuries. 
When the kings came to Rheims to be crowned 
they dwelt in the palace of the archbishop, close 
beside the church. In that palace is a grand hall 
where the coronation banquet took place. There are 
reception rooms, and sleeping-rooms, salons, and a 
salle des gardes for the soldiers who have always 
been needed about the person of a French monarch. 
There is a chapel where high mass was celebrated by 
the prelate for his royal guest. In this chapel now 
stands a statue of Urban II., the French Pope, who 
is represented in the act of proclaiming the first 
crusade. This statue was not here when Philip 
Augustus was crowned. Perhaps he would not have 
deserted Richard Cceur de Lion if he had learned its 
lesson of enthusiasm and faith stronger than life itself. 
The statue is not a masterpiece of sculpture, but it 
has in it a most marvellous spirit of religious fervor. 



222 THE CATHEDRAL OF EHEIMS 

In these halls — in this chapel — were the kings. 
Joan of Arc did not stay here. She was the real 
arbiter of her country's destinies then; but royal 
apartments were not for her. 

Now there are no more kings crowned at Rheims. 
It may be that there never will be any more. The 
people have the power they wished for. May it be 
hoped that in this royal church they will seek a 
blessing on that power, and that it may be granted 
to them ! 

If they come flocking thither in the evening hour 
just as the sun is setting, they will find the fagade 
transformed, filled through and through with the 
glory of the jjings and the saints who have passed 
away. It is golden — almost like the ruddy gold of 
Rome that belongs with the diadems of kings. Each 
statue wakes to life. The coldness of the old stone 
is gone. The sunshine of the glorious days of French 
history has banished it. The light of religion in 
which dwell the saints and the angels is upon it. 
The tender spirit of the Mother is there and the up- 
lifting power of the Christ is in it. In such a light 
as this the fagade of Rheims cathedral must have 
given a benediction and an inspiration to the kings 
who entered this golden portal to receive their crowns 
before the altar. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

ST. DENIS 

To Rheims the kings came for their coronation ; at 
St, Denis their bodies were laid to rest. In the one 
church is the splendor surrounding a king whose 
reign has just begun with high hope that it may be 
well for his people and himself while he holds the 
sceptre. In the other church is the sadness that 
comes with the end of human life, the regret that 
even consecrated kings fail often in doing their sim- 
ple duty. 

St. Denis is a very old church. The first building 
was a basilica erected by Christians as soon as they 
were allowed to build churches in France. It was 
built to commemorate the martyrdom of St. Denis 
and his companions, — the priest Rustique and the 
deacon Eleuthere. Afterward St. Genevieve caused 
it to be rebuilt about the end of the fifth century. 
Dagobert I., in fulfilment of a vow to the holy mar- 
tyrs, built a still greater church upon the same site. 
This lasted a century and a half, and then King 

223 



224 ST. DENIS 

Pepin commenced a new church, which Charlemagne 
finished. 

This church was destroyed by the Normans. King 
after king has restored or rebuilt this abbey of the 
first Archbishop of Paris. 

At last it became a temple of Reason in the time 
of the Revolution, but even that did not prevent its 
destruction. A restoration was begun about the be- 
ginning of this century, but it was M. VioUet-le-Duc 
who finally made the church what it now is. This 
great architect has shown here the same skill and 
patience that have brought to life again so many of 
the ruined monuments of France. 

The fa9ade of the church is very peculiar. It is 
partly Norman, partly Gothic; but the strangest 
thing about it is the battlement that surmounts it. 
This strongly suggests the fortress idea, and recalls 
the Church of the Templars at Luz. There are, how- 
ever, no traces of exterior walls about St. Denis. It 
is possible the monks were here at one time, as good 
soldiers as their brethren of St. Michel. Doubtless, 
they had the same need of carnal weapons to defend 
their sacred places. 

The interior of the church is very beautiful, but 
not as impressive as any of the other cathedrals, 
because it is so new. The softening touch of age 
is not upon its columns and arches nor upon its 
stained glass windows. 








^a;'. 






t 




ST. DENIS 



ST. DENIS 225 

Admirable as the restoration is, it cannot conceal 
the fact that the nave and the choir, the chapels and 
the vaulted roof, are not those which in the olden 
time sheltered the remains of the French kings. 

It is strange to think of the great antiquity of this 
building; to remember that Clovis, and Dagobert, 
and Charlemagne are associated with it ; that most 
of the great kings of France have been buried here ; 
and that, nevertheless, it was restored, brought to 
life again at a time when there were no more kings 
to be buried in this place of the dead monarchs. 
With all the pains they took to raise this splendid 
mausoleum, when the Revolution came their ashes 
were scattered to the winds. Nothing is left of the 
power they had on earth except as the impress of it 
may have touched the life of the French people and 
made it better or worse. 

The monuments are here, — not all as they were, 
for many have been destroyed ; but some are pre- 
served, and these make the chief interest of the 
church. Those that remain were replaced by M. 
Viollet-Le-Duc, as nearly as possible in the positions 
they formerly occupied. Their tale of the end of 
earthly power is what is told at St. Denis. 

Let the monuments speak for themselves. Here 
is Clovis I., whose baptism is told of on the facade 
of Rheims. The sculpture is rude, but there is a 

Q 



226 ST. DENIS 

certain majesty about it, especially in the way the 
sceptre is held, the commanding gesture of the left 
hand, and the crouching lion beneath the feet. The 
leading figure of the kings at Rheims now lies pros- 
trate in this church of the dead. He has many com- 
panions in his last sleep. King after king, queen 
after queen, surround him. Dagobert has his chapel 
here, and there is many a bas-relief to tell the won- 
derful story of how his soul was saved from the 
devils by St. Denis, St. Maurice, and St. Martin. 

There are many kings below in the Norman crypt, 
whose massive columns strongly suggest the power 
of that kingdom whose king was once a Charlemagne. 

In the inner part of the crypt are many sarcophagi, 
in which were the bodies of the Bourbons. How many 
ages of the world's history are suggested in this 
church ! It is almost as if every century of Chris- 
tian times had some royal person here to tell its tale. 

Beside the kings, there are knights and soldiers. 
Du Guesclin, the most valiant defender of France 
against the English, has a monument here. The 
effigy of this brave man is, unfortunately, but a 
very poor thing. It surely cannot give any idea of 
his bodily power, for he seems like a boy in height, 
nor is there any indication of such muscular strength 
as must have been needed to resist the sturdy Eng- 
lish knights of those days. But the spirit of the 



ST. DENIS 227 

French champion is here, and it is well that it 
dwells so near the kings in their last resting- 
place. 

It is a pity that Joan of Arc is not here. The 
French kings needed many to help them, though 
some were well able to take care of themselves. 
Louis XII. and Francis I. fought their own battles, 
and fought them bravely, although at Pavia Francis 
was defeated and captured. 

The monuments to these two kings and their wives 
are among the most remarkable that any kings or 
, queens have ever had made in their honor. The 
same idea is carried out in both, and they were evi- 
dently the work of very able sculptors, who had 
agreed together about how a monument to kings 
should be constructed. 

It is astonishing that any great artist should ever 
have dreamed of doing what has been done here. 
The principle on which the sculptor carried out his 
design seems to have been a contrast, as strong as he 
could possibly make it, between life and death. He 
puts life above and death beneath. 

Francis I. and his queen, Claude de France, are 
kneeling together upon what might be called the 
roof of the tomb. They are clad in royal robes. 
All the splendor of their insignia is about them. 
Their prie-dieus are richly ornamented. It is the 



228 ST. DENIS 

same with Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany, with 
Henry II. and Catherine de' Medici. 

Below are figures nearly naked, which seek to 
express the very death-agony itself. That of Francis, 
attributed by some to Jean Goujon, by others to 
Pierre Bontemps, is a masterpiece in the study of 
anatomy. The king's head has fallen back over his 
pillow. He is breathing his last gasp. Every muscle 
is tense with the strain of the final struggle. The 
last peace does not seem to be there, even although 
the body has yielded to death. It is almost as if one 
heard the latest breath of the king and was there 
when his death struggle came. 

But why should the figure be nude ? Why should 
the figure of the dead queen be nude ? It seems as 
if the sculptor had chosen to bring the body, almost at 
the moment of death, close to the sepulchre that was 
to receive it. The sepulchre was below. On the 
tomb of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany it is sur- 
rounded by the twelve apostles, exquisitely carved in 
marble. But above the artist seems to have thought 
it best to tell a tale of kingly grandeur, and to use in 
telling it all the outward splendors that surround a 
king. 

I have never seen such light and shade as this. 
It suggests Rembrandt's " Lesson in Anatomy," but 
even there the contrast is not nearly so strong; for 



ST. DENIS 229 

the dead man and the living doctors had no such 
relation together as the dead kings and queens and 
their full-robed selves above. There is much beauty 
in the ornament of these tombs. 

After the artist had finished his ghastly portraits 
of the dead, human body, even kings of men stripped 
of everything but that, after he had shown how 
great and glorious were these royal people in their 
life, he calls upon religion and poetry to ornament 
their resting-places, to give them thoughts of a 
life to come, as well as those of the life that was 
ended. 

Some of the bas-reliefs about these monuments are 
exquisite in design. They tell of battles for the 
most part, for here is the history of the kings written 
in marble, but the surrounding figures seem almost 
like the protecting angels of the cathedral of Rheims. 
It is strange to see Catherine de' Medici here in 
prayer, apparently most devout, when those whom 
she is supposed to have poisoned are lying all about 
her. It is stranger yet that her nude figure, lying 
beside that of her husband, should be represented in 
sleep — not in death. This queen did not like the 
thought of death. She preferred sleep and forget- 
fulness. I wonder if she herself ever gave that idea 
to the sculptor. It is certain that she is so repre- 
sented here, and some one must have told the artist 



230 ST. DENIS 

to make this surprising change, a contrast between 
sleep and death. 

The statues of Anne of Brittany, both in life and 
death, do not suggest the active, ambitious character 
of the Breton queen. They are too demure in 
expression, but it may be well to give a thought of 
peace about a life that was almost always troubled. 

Henry II. could not bring Diane de Poitiers here. 
In many a church and palace he had associated her 
with him, but in this church of the dead he has no 
companion but the queen who feared to die. 

This is true of- Francis also, and of many another. 

Here they came at last. Here the pleasures and 
luxuries of life are forgotten, and the duties of a 
king and a queen are remembered. 

The lesson of the fagade of Rheims, the inspiration 
of the kings about to be crowned, is enforced by 
sombre St. Denis, where all these royal people once 
lay dead, called away from their earthly glory to make 
answer to the use they made of the high place they 
had been called upon to fill. 



CHAPTER XXV 

ST. ETIENNB DU MONT, THE CHURCH OF THE 
PATRON" SAINT OF PARIS — NOTRE DAME, AND 
THE PANTHEON 

At St. Denis it seemed as if all ended with death. 
The gloom of that burial-place is like a heavy pall 
over a bier. Nevertheless, those who have done well 
are not forgotten. They live in the memory of a 
grateful people. The saints who gave their lives to 
bring the truth of Christ to France; the heroes who 
gave their lives also to protect their land against a 
foe ; the kings and queens who ruled well, made good 
laws, founded great institutions of learning, and cared 
for the poor and the helpless, — all these are still a 
part of French life. They are not dead, but live in 
the hearts of the people. Those people, grateful for 
their good works, have called upon their artists to 
commemorate them. 

Nobly and well has this tribute of gratitude been 
paid. Great churches have been built in their honor, 
great paintings tell of their good deeds, great statues 

231 



232 ST. ETIBNNE DU MONT 

keep them living in the midst of the people they 
loved and died for. 

Over the portal of St. Etienne du Mont, the 
church of the patron saint of Paris, is the stoning 
of the first martyr, Stephen. Within the church is 
the tomb of St. Genevieve, who healed and blessed 
the sick and the poor. So beneficent was her life 
that this peasant girl of Nanterre was chosen to be 
the most revered of all the saints by the people of 
Paris. 

The church that was built in her honor is no 
longer as it used to be. It has been replaced by a 
larger one, but the building that now stands here is 
one of the most interesting of the French churches. 

This place where St. Genevieve is buried is close 
beside the Pantheon, the hall of the French heroes. 
Once the tomb of the saint was on the very spot 
where it now stands. Once the Pantheon itself was 
dedicated to her during the short time while the 
present building was a place of worship. On the 
other side of the street of King Clovis that passes by 
it, is still a tower that was a part of the Abbey of 
St. Genevieve. 

The saints and the heroes are brought closely 
together here. In the Pantheon are the tales of all 
their deeds as painters alone can tell them. The 
frescoes of Puvis de Chavanne tell of St. Genevieve 




THE CHURCH OF ST. ETIENNE DU MONT 



NOTRE DAME AND THE PANTHEON 233 

in her country home and afterward of her meeting 
with the good priests who have been to England to 
combat heresy. In Laurens' work the death of the 
saint is vividly portrayed. 

Not only are the saints told of here ; the great 
deeds of the heroes are also vividly protrayed. There 
is the coronation of Charlemagne. The Pope is 
placing the crown on his head. The church gives 
its benediction upon the work which the conquer- 
ing emperor had done. What a work it was ! 
Long years have passed and still its power is felt. 

St. Louis sits here in the Pantheon giving justice 
to all. He founds the Sorbonne. His intense relig- 
ious ardor calls him to undertake a last crusade. 
He meets the Moor. He is overcome, but not by 
force of arms. The deadly fever conquered him at 
last. Here in the Pantheon he still stands at the 
door of his tent, pale but dauntless, meeting those 
who came to treat with him for peace. In a little 
time he will go back into that tent and give up his 
earthly life ; a life that he had tried to use for the 
best that he knew, — the advancement of his people 
in religion and knowledge. 

St. Denis is here. Bonnat has well told the story 
of his martyrdom. His beheaded companions lie on 
the steps of the building where their execution took 
place. He has a halo of glory about the neck, from 



^34 ST. ETIBlsTNE DU MONT 

which the head has just been stricken. Stooping 
down he takes up the head again, and about that 
too is a radiance, — the shining light of a life well 
lived. 

Joan of Arc is here again. In all French life her 
spirit lives. Her vision of Domremy is seen. The 
stern battle at Orleans is portrayed. The fearless 
girl stands holding her holy banner while the sol- 
diers storm the gate. Afterward, all clothed in 
white, she stands upon the fagots which the soldiers 
are lighting with their torches. The priest is there. 
He has himself mounted upon the fagots and come 
as close as he could to the maiden who is bound to 
the stake. He holds high a crucifix. It is close to 
her lips. He blesses her and prays. Below, but 
close also to the fagots, is another priest, who chants 
the prayers for those about to die. The English 
priests and soldiers are in the background, awaiting 
the consummation of this fearful tragedy. It was 
ended at last. The flames destroyed the mortal part 
of that maiden who made France a kingdom by 
repelling the invader and invoking the spirit of 
patriotism with the blessing of religion upon it. 

Other saints, other kings, are here in this hall of 
the heroes, — many of them, — but there is no one who 
did so much for France as did the maid of Domremy; 
no king who helped more to bring about good things 



NOTRE DAME AND THE PANTHEON 235 

for his people than the sainted Louis who died in his 
crusade for his faith's sake. 

Without these two there might have been no Notre 
Dame, the grand cathedral in the very midst of the 
greatest of French cities. Here it stands to-day, 
with the river flowing about it. Here rise its towers 
toward the sky. Upon its fagade are told the stories 
of what is best in life, what saddest in death. 

Within are great columns, magnificent vaulted 
aisles. There are tombs of martyrs, not only those 
of olden time, but of to-day also; for here is the 
monument to the archbishop who was killed at the 
time of the Commune, and here, also, are the tombs 
of many priests and others who in these latter days 
have helped to bring the truth of Christ to the 
people. 

Above are the windows — the glorious windows, 
full of color, suggestive of all the splendor of a great 
people, suggestive also of the city that is to be here- 
after when the heavens are opened and all see the 
place that has been prepared above. 

This great cathedral ! How wonderful it is ! Its 
buttresses are time-defying. Its towers reach toward 
the sky. This is the home of the religion of France. 
Here is what her heroes have fought for. Here is 
what her saints have given their lives for. 

The people come into these grand aisles, and sit 



236 ST. ETIEi^NE DU MONT 

beneath a light of story and of glory that shines 
upon them from the vast windows. They worship 
in the church that the heroic deeds of others have 
given to them. It would be well to walk quietly 
about the aisles, to stop at each chapel, to look on 
each window, to feel the power of every grand 
column, the uplifting spirit of every Gothic arch, and 
then remember that self-sacrifice has made it possible 
that France should have such monuments as these. 



Norfaooli ?3w00: 

J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



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